Friday Nights are for Cricket

An American attempts to understand one of Britain’s oldest sports

If you were to read the bath towels and handkerchiefs in the gift shop of London’s storied Lord’s Cricket Grounds that "explain" cricket to a foreign visitor, you would think they were intentionally making fun of you for not knowing anything about the sport. And you would be right. But in our defense, the whole new set of terms alone is enough to scramble the brain. Trying to learn and remember the rules then becomes an even harder task.

One thing that was easy to remember was the claim our Lord's tour guide, Tony, so eloquently made: watching cricket is thirsty business. Luckily, I got to test that theory out first-hand at the sold out Surrey-Kent t20 cricket match later that day at the Oval. The idea was reinforced when, within ten minutes of finding my seat and sitting down, a man behind me questioned why I wasn't drinking a beer yet. "You need a beer when you watch cricket," he said. So I promptly went and ordered one. Beer in hand, as there were no cup holders, I settled in to watch the game.

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