Actually, I've played cricket. Several decades ago, the Indian students in my PhD program got me to try it under the pretense that it was "just baseball." Well, no; no more than the fact that there's a paddle makes it "just ping-pong." I thought it was great fun actually, but it has no potential as a spectator sport. It's also pretty difficult to round up the kids in the neighborhood for a pick-up game, at least in State College, PA, USA.
Did that crazy woman really say that?