gDiapers: the early years...

What a way to start a Friday...

A picture (or two) tells a thousands words...(unless you've never watched cricket. Call for an explanation! Suffice to say Australia are actually playing well again)

Oh what a beautiful morning at the Ashes...

Australia declared at 6/ 674 runs in reply to England's 435 with no less than four 100's. Even Haddin (the "catcher" as you call them here) cracked a ton...

Internal Memo: The Ashes are upon us.

  

Please note that productivity out of my office (OK, OK...the room I share with Kim) may be slower than usual from July 7 - 11 due to the First Test being played at Cardiff. You may hear the dulcet tones of the BBC's cricket commentators coming from said office as they exhort their wonder at the boys from Down Under.

This is serious. This is the Ashes. Unlike the local "World Series" played here by your sometime drug - assisted Rounders League, this actually involves teams from two entirely different countries playing for pride (and a few bucks) powered by tea and cucumber sandwiches. (I am amazed drugs haven't hit Cricket - not sure why. There's a lot less money involved so maybe that's why)

It involves a series of five games played every two years between Australia and England dating back to 1882.

The greatest batsmen of all time - Don Bradman (pictured above)  - an Australian who was a stock broker by trade averaged 99.94. That is the number of runs he scored on average in an innings over his 20 year career. Only three other payers in history have averages over 60. The man was a freak. And every cricket fan father hopes his son emerges as the next Bradman. His trick was to practice hitting a golf ball with a cricket stump (like the thin end of a baseball bat) against a currugated water tank (so a curved surface). Try it sometime.

So fair warning has been given. I might be out of it over the next week...!

Oh, the embarrasment England...

It was tough enough for the Poms (Brits) to lose a Test Cricket series to a team of indigenous Australian in 1868. Today, a team from Holland beat them - yowser...

South African's bowling delivery deemed illegal

You don't see this issue in baseball, but it's happening in Cricket some. 

How much more bent can that arm be? 

Cricket is indeed a contact sport...

In case you were wondering...

Cricket translated...

After the Proteas(that'd be the South Africans) humbled us last year, we are back big time. 

This paragraph sums it up. Translation in blue in parentheses.  This is what baseball needs: less drugs and more claret (blood) spilt. 

"MITCHELL JOHNSON'S (Australian left arm, express (fast) bowler (pitcher) that the best Australian bowler (Dennis Lillee) once described as a once-in -a-lifetime prospect) numbers: 16 overs (one over is made up of 8 deliveries (pitches)) so in 128 balls (pitches) , five maidens (a maiden is a beautiful young woman but not as beautiful as a maiden in cricket. A maiden over is an over (8 pitches) where no runs are conceded. The batting team is essentially paralysed), three wickets (a wicket means getting the batsmen out), two batsmen in hospital for X-rays , one broken finger to South African captain Graeme Smith, three stitches to the battered face of Jacques Kallis, one case of blood on the pitch, one unveiling of previously unseen inswingers (the ball leaves the bowlers (pitchers) hand and as it travels through the air it swings in towards the batsmen. The outer cover of a cricket ball is red leather. You generate swing by shining one half of the ball) to complement his searing pace (An express bowler has the ball moving at about 100 mph) and one magnificent example of a player grabbing a Test (A Test is 5 glorious days of cricket)  by the scruff of its neck."

In SAT parlance, Cricket is to Chess as Baseball is to Checkers. Let the hate mail begin...

Terrorist attack on cricket.

This is an absolute tragedy. To my American cousins, cricket is more than just a sport for the countries who play it. It really is like a religion.  Both Zimbabwe and Pakistan are now effectively sidelined from the Gentlemen's game. 

Cricket finally makes it to prime time in the US

Front page of today's NY Times features a story on cricket - yay. OK, so it's about the Bernie Madoff of Antigua who invested much of his ill gotten gains into West Indian cricket but still, a small if not confused victory for the Gentlemen's game...

Cricket wins the day

Despite 4 years in America the kids are still cricket-obsessed. So the Portland Cricket Club opened for business on Saturday with a vigorous training session. An all-weather facility has been built (in the basement of our home - office...) The squad had an international flavor with some big hitters out of Mumbai and New Delhi joining the two wonders from Down Under (OK, that's a bit of an exaggeration) and some terrific local talent.