Feb. 20--If you happen to watch any video highlights from the ongoing Cricket World Cup, you'll see this exotic game at its most familiar. Two teams playing ball on a grass field in the sunshine, swinging for the fences (well, the "boundary") and catching fly balls in their bare hands. Hey, it's like Chicago-style 16-inch softball for the gin and tonic crowd!
The more disorienting part, again based on TV highlights, is cricket's version of the home run, which is worth six runs: you see the batsman swing, hear the familiar-sounding "crack" of the bat and trace the ball against a blue sky. But then comes British play-by-play announcers using descriptives that would have caused Harry Caray to spit out his beer:
"That's magnificently connected!"
"Oh, nice, nice! Lovely stroking!"
So if you're keeping score at home, cricket vs. baseball, their vocabulary is weirder. OK, not weirder, just different. We've got frozen rope, dying quails and chin music. They've got bumpers, the googly and dibbly-dobblers.
You can't blame us for looking at cricket and seeing baseball through a cracked mirror. The games seem closely related and after all, this is February, when our beloved sport's spring training arrives. Meanwhile, much of the rest of the English-speaking world is caught up in the International Cricket Council World Cup, held through March in Australia and New Zealand.
Please don't expect us to explain the game's intricacies here, or refute cricket's reputation for being "baseball on valium," as Robin Williams once said. Instead, we'll seek guidance from Shiraz Najam, an IT consultant from Skokie who is president of the Midwest Cricket Conference.
Cricket, he told us, is all about passion: an intense physical and mental contest overlaid with strategy. "Contrary to the common belief that it's a slow-paced game, it's very action-packed," he said.
One anticipated first round World Cup match pitted India against Pakistan, heated rivals who play each other infrequently. Due to the time difference, the match started Saturday, Feb. 14, at 9:30 p.m. CST and ended Sunday at 5 a.m. Um, seven hours of overnight cricket? Najam watched "every single ball."
There was a viewing party at his uncle's house -- giant screen TV, lots of food -- attended by a divided crowd of about 70 people. India defeated Pakistan by 76 runs. At the end of the match, there was "heated debate and discussion," Najam said.
Sounds like fun.
And we'll stipulate that cricket seems like a great game with many passionate fans.
It's just not baseball.
