Or, DO THAT...

I wish I had discovered how awesome cricket was when I was young (I'm 32 now), I just didn't understand it and so never watched. Hence I missed out on so many amazing players.

I always thought it was a slow and boring game, and then I remember watching Devon Malcolm tear through the South Africans taking 9-57, after he was hit in the head by a De Villiers bouncer in England's innings.

Cricket is not my favourite spectator sport, but the 2005 Ashes was just the most amazing drama I've ever witnessed.

where did the term left arm chinaman come from? that is hilarious, and mildly racist.

how much money do the top cricket players make?

is there a premier cricket league that might be equivalent to MLB? it seems like there are a lot of international competitions between countries or are these worldwide competitions the league i am talking about?

how is a cricket ball similar/different than a baseball?

a cricket ball is slightly heavier and has a single, more pronounced seam.

Non-striker is out, and play it dead.

1. I have no idea, but there is also a french cut and a chinese cut in cricket, and both terms are used for a not-so-good shot.

2. The top cricketers from India make the most at this point. The majority of thier income comes from endorsements. Sachin Tendulkar made 100 crores for a 5 year endorsement contract ($21m). As far as top cricketers from other countries go, I'm guessing they make around 2-3m a year including endorsements.

3. There is the Indian Premier league now that just started 2 years back. Every team in that league is allowed 4 foreign players, so it has a good global dynamic. Players are earning upto $1.5m for participating in the 50 day league.

The only problem with the league is it is handled by the Indian cricket federation (BCCI) and the International Cricket Council does not get a chunk of the pie, due to which there is a power struggle and there is no space in the international team schedules for the IPL yet. So you have players that teams purchase that are not availible for the entirety of the tourney.

In 1934 soneone English was bowled out by a West Indian player of chinese extraction with an ususual delivery. Someone in the dressing room commented 'fancy getting out to a chinaman' and its stuck

at least That's what Bumble said on the TV today

Its hard to overstate the importance of the draw in test cricket.

<--- and still the worlds best cricketer if he could be persuaded to return.

Yea he can just skip the Indian subcontinent tours and just keep bowling in the Ashes and against SA till he's 50.

Sooo...what are the chances that a top-class cricket league will take off in the United States?

I'm not sure, (without meaning to be racist) If you had a much larger Indian population it would have a better chance.

Beckham, arguably the worlds most marketable Footballer hasn't really boosted the MLS much has he?

Just found this video on Youtube and I'm tilted to hell right now.
Forget being a top university, more like a ****** uni, this is utterly pathetic.

"Cricket Ballers" DIE YOU FOOL

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VlTk7JZT5zI

Dont 4 get Wales, we have a very strong cricket mentality ( south wales). I played for my local team for 9 years and we had four teams in 4 leagues, as well as juniours from under 16s to under 11s, the highlight being winning the village cup at Lords, and yes I played (opening bowler).
A lot of Glamorgan players used to turn out for the local teams so the standard was very decent.
BTW my club was YNYSTAWE and we one it in 2001 for anyone who is interested.

Nice thread op.

There is not a chance in hell that any top tear pitcher is going to be a decent bowler after 6 months training.More likely he would go down with a lot of injuries because the muscles and tech used would be totally alien to him.However there is no way you could take a second run on their arms.The Aust. fielding coach Mike Young is an American I believe,and comes from a baseball background.The team has actually paid his way to few world cups and other tournies.

Do they take roids in cricket?

Yeah the juice is in the game for sure.Shane warne was banned for 1 year(i think) because he tested pos for a masking agent before a world cup.He said it was a diet pill his mum gave him,LOL.There have also been a number of fast bowlers here in Aust who have been caught using them for faster recovery from injuries.

Any Americans (or British/Indian/etc. expats living in America) play cricket?

I stumbled into it in 2005 and have been enjoying it ever since. I play for a club that doesn't take itself too seriously--it's basically just an excuse to have a few beers every Sunday. And it's a mix of a bunch of different nationalities--at various times we've had Indians, Sri Lankans, Englishmen, Scots, Nepalese, South Africans, Australians, Pakistanis, Americans, West Indians, and probably a few others. Unfortunately most of the other teams seem to be pretty divided along racial lines--there's one Pakistani team, a couple of Indian teams, and a Nepalese team of university students. And the USA cricket association is a mess because of all the infighting between different ethnic groups. If it were actually run in a professional fashion we'd have a shot at a semi-respectable national team.

It takes a little while to pick up all the nuances of the rules, but a lot of it (mostly in terms of fielding) does carry over from baseball--backing up throws, getting the ball in from the outfield, etc. And I was a horrible hitter when I played baseball, and I'm a horrible batsman. (My lifetime high score is 5.) I'm a good fielder, though.

Anyway, if you ever find yourself in New Orleans on a Sunday and want to give cricket a try--or better yet, if you're a good player!--shoot me a PM. The nice thing about the weather here is that we can play almost year-round.

If the USA ever gets serious about cricket the rest of the world might be in trouble.Hope it happens im my lifetime.

Play down the line of the ball.

You never know with them, they seem to be getting good at everything now. They have like 2 curling rings in the whole country and still have a pretty competitive side..

If China ever gets serious about world domination then we are all screwed.

I think the thing to consider when thinking about foreign sports taking off in the US is that with the exception of soccer, the salaries for all US sports are massive compared with the salaries for foreign sports. For instance the England cricket captain earns somewhere between £250,000 and £500,000 a year, and he's the top cricketer in England. General international cricketers might earn £100,000, and cricketers below that might even earn as little as £20,000 a year when starting out. That means that if you can hold down a job as a long-snapper in an NFL team for 5 years, you are going to be better paid than the best cricketer in England. Indians get paid (much) more, but all the other cricket playing nations are around English levels or even less.

The IPL is the first introduction of mega-bucks salaries for cricketers.

So to answer your question, will there ever be a league that captivates America like baseball or football? Probably not. But given America's huge wealth x huge population, I can see a successful cricket league being formed with just a small niche interest.. In fact you could probably become a top cricketing nation if cricket was just popular in one state.

All you need to know is Michael Clarke is the greatest cricketer ever and all of Australia loves him, he will be the next captain

I am just gobsmacked at the Tendulkar figure

I know the IPL has skewed things a lot, but aren't cricketers bar the very very few on pretty poor wages sports wise? Like a regular county starter would be on c.£100k a year?

What is an England central contract worth? And if you're on one of them, does this mean your county can pay you a lot less because you're unavailable so much?

I'm a reasonable fan of test cricket (not much time for the other stuff) but reading this thread has made me aware of how little I know of it.

Fun fact- the first ever international cricket match was between Canada and the USA. The governing body of cricket at the time actively wanted to discourage the USA from taking part in cricket- being able to play cricket was seen as a perk of being part of the commonwealth (the countries that used to be part of the British Empire). Since you guys decided to leave the British Empire by rather more violent means, cricket was meant to be denied you as a "punishment".

More like c£50k.

Around c£100k-250k.

Your county doesn't pay you at all, or on a game-by-game basis.