We find it excruciatingly boring to watch. I say this as someone who has spent some time in OZ and NZ. Even our elites, who prefer soccer to American football, haven’t been able to drum up any enthusiasm for cricket.
> We find it excruciatingly boring to watch. I say this as someone who has spent some time in OZ and NZ. Even our elites, who prefer soccer to American football, haven’t been able to drum up any enthusiasm for cricket.
To be fair, it took me nearly a decade to get “into” the Cricket — it was boring to watch and difficult to understand (I’m an immigrant originally from Canada, used to Ice Hockey).
I eventually got used to it — this involved understanding the game itself as well as its “culture”, because it does carry a very strong culture that isn’t obvious. This was achieved with the help of long hot summer days, knowledgeable patient mates, and plenty of ice-cold beer.
And then one day I had a turn defending the wicket.
It is then that I realized that each time the bowler bowls, the batsman stands an excellent chance at getting maimed or killed: the cricket ball is much heavier than a baseball, and it will bounce at the batsman and his wicket from any direction. The bowler gives it a wicked spin and the batsman has no real idea where the ball is until the last second — unlike baseball it can be anywhere, and if it hit the batsman, too bad!
More than that, anybody on the field stands an excellent chance of getting maimed or killed each time the batsman hits the ball: because he will do so, with a heavy willow bat, in ANY direction. More like a heavy 2x4 than a light baseball bat.
The fielders catch his fast, heavy ball WITHOUT GLOVES. And then they throw it hard at the wicket, where the batsmen are trying to run...
So what appeared at first to be a boring game was, in fact, an exceedingly dangerous game played without much protective gear in slow motion, one move at a time.
There is now several variations of the game, to make the games shorter. A test match can take a WHOLE WEEK. There is also now one-day games and limited-overs games, and they are much faster paced.
It does taking getting used to, and probably playing, before anyone would take it up in the US. I think someone over there should.