Not long after hearing about the ashes, I remember watching on tv the 20/20 cricket world championships in Barbados. I was interested by location as much as the lack of anything else on tv that day. We snuggled in front of a fire thinking about warmer climates and I learned the basic rules of cricket. 20/20 cricket is much more appealing as the game lasts a few hours and you have a result at the end. Someone wins and someone looses. No ties, no draws, no waiting for the next game to hope for a result it finishes neat and tidy, apparently a very American desire to have a winner and looser in a game.
Fast forward a few years, I had not thought much about cricket since watching the finals, and I was soon leaving England. I decided I should go see a cricket match live. We could have gone to see a local match (similar to little league, or adult league baseball) just up the road from the house and that would have fulfilled the bucket list. After all, every Friday afternoon I hear the boys go up the street with the wheeled cricket bags for practice and back down afterwards. You can hear the Sunday afternoon cheers from the village when a 6 is scored, and the adults are usually within stones throw of the house when the stop at the local pub for a pint after a long day of cricket. As we are not really friends with anyone who plays cricket in the village grounds, we felt a bit funny showing up at a match.
Luckily enough, my husbands work had some box tickets to a nearby county 20/20 match. It was a very nice way to watch cricket with food and drinks provided. Although it was not our local county natch, it was a good refresher course in cricket for me.
Soon after my first live 20/20 match, the ashes started again. I wasn't sure I would like it, but it was raining outside and there was absolutely nothing else on tv. Fortunately the other side of the country had dry weather, so I tuned into England vs Australia for the ashes. Bowl after bowl I became hooked. My husband was surprised to come home from work and not have to look up the results, but for me to give them to him as we'll as a rundown of the days highlights while we watched the last few overs.
During the ashes we attended another county cricket match and met up with one of my husbands friends from work. He too was surprised in my sudden comprehension of the game and interest in ashes cricket. Here are a few pictures from that game :
My local county team lost, Oh well. In the mean time England has retained the ashes in the first three tests and while I am visiting family in Eastbourne, I am following the fourth of five matches via the highlights. I just hope we can get the second round of the ashes from Australia while we are in Florida!
