Of Wickets, Overs, and Ovals

I never thought the following words would ever come out of my mouth (nor spring from my fingertips, as the case may be), but here they are:

I am beginning to understand Cricket. The game, not the bug.

Dig it: a Cricket Wicket

I know, I’m kind of frightened by this as well.

But, it’s not my fault. Honestly. See the company for which I work has a lot of employees of Indian descent – almost all of them actually from India who are here on work visas. In fact, of the seven people in my department, four are Indian (the other three being two Caucasians and one Filipino, if you must know).

Workforce to the world

Now, that’s not enough in itself to teach me Cricket. I mean, it’s not like some osmotic process where working day-in and day-out with folks from India magically imbues you with a deeper understanding of their culture (though it does allow for a greater familiarity with, and appreciation of, the lyrical nature of their accents). No, a deeper understanding of culture comes from asking questions. And brother, I am not afraid of asking questions.

But I digress.

See, evidently, the Cricket World Cup is in full swing, with the initial elimination round just ended and the so-called “Super 8” just starting. I had no idea of this, but did notice that for the last two weeks or so, all of the Indian ex-pats in the office were completely abuzz with excitement and discussion. At first I thought they had gotten the order from Delhi and were about to launch their attempt to battle the Chinese for supreme control of the world, so I approached with caution. However, I wasn't really scared because I knew that if India does win the ultimate showdown, they’ll use us white folks as “skilled” labor, and not just send us to the camps. Except the British, that is. Those limeys will get their bill, and be sent straight to the mines.

Start digging

As it turned out, I didn’t need to swear fealty to my new overlords. Yet. They were dropping words like "Overs" and "Wickets" and the like, which I recognized from my close study of H2G2 as being related to this mysterious entity called Cricket.

So, I asked. And they answered.

No, I won’t give you a brief tutorial about the game, nor the ridiculous rules. But now, when I hear one of the guys say “Australia's chasing 152 runs with six wickets” I know what they mean.

Chasing 152 with 6 wickets!

And you don’t.

Nyah.

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