Who says cricket's boring?

I know not of what games you speak, but cricket is still boring to watch.

New Zealand vs England, one dayer at Durham. It's night time and winter here so no paint to watch drying..

The whole NZ visit has been great stuff, the one-dayers picking up where the Tests left off with the same excellent on field attitude and competitive exciting cricket. I think England were a little unlucky to go 2:1 down but the performance at Trent Bridge was just brilliant. These sides are (amazingly) pretty close. Weather may be a bit dodgy early on in Durham, I hope it does not spoil the decider.

The Ashes may feel like an afterthought which is hard to believe.

Come again NZ, play here every year! I just wish there had been some to watch live on TV free-to-air in the UK rather than highlights at midnight. Despite the excitement we are struggling to get juniors attracted to our League sides locally; and cricket in Yorkshire is about as popular as it gets.

Bruce

I really don't get cricket as a sport. It appears to me, from a historical  perspective to be one of the  last vestige of British colonialism and these nations are quite happy to carry on the tradition for whatever reason. My mind  boggles as watch in horror spectators falling  asleep with pints of beer in the hands as it is played and the games last an eternity to complete but good luck to those who enjoy it. 

It's so exciting that I am too nervous to watch 

I'm listening to the radio as don't have Sky and the pubs are shut. NZ are currently 172/4 after 36 overs. Doubling the runs scored after 30 overs would suggest a target of around 280, which would be disappointing in the context of how the series has gone so far. Guess anything can happen and it only takes 10 good deliveries..

Compared to the previous games a target of 284 for England to win would be pretty modest, but once the rain stops I can see a fair bit of movement and it should be exciting.

I very much agree with Bruce about the spirit in which these tests and ODI's have been played.  Great credit to the New Zealand team for that.  Can't see that spirit when the Aussies come.

As for boring, not a bit of it.  These ODIs have been particularly exciting but I must say that the full 5-day tests are still my favourite form of the game.     

It looked like England were in control at 219-7 but the England bowling in the last few overs was disappointing - especially the 22 runs off the last over 

Hopefully the England batting (and the nerve) will hold up.

Whatever happens it has been a great series played in a tremendous spirit - and neither team desreves to lose. England need to just knock off 41 runs for the series to become the first ever to surpass 3,000 runs. The sides had scored a combined 2,676 runs - at a rate 7.30 an over before the start of play (thanks BBC)

….. and I'd almost forgotten about KP  

you must be nuts....

Oh dear - rain and more rain. No doubt the Duckworth Lewis farce will set Enland 240 to win off 12 overs in due course 

Well, an exciting finish.  Thought England had blown it! Would have liked for the ODI series to have settled in 50 overs game but, still, it was an intriguing contest. Good for England's confidence too.   

Yes at 45 for 5 it looked all over and spoiled by the weather / Duckworth-Lewis tilting the balance too much in favour of the team that batted first.

I was on tenterhooks for the last few overs - and that dropped catch 

Another good result for England in the T20 format this time 

Winky they have it over here, they just call it baseball

FWIW

The Internet World's Most Popular Sports

Source: http://www.topendsports.com/wo...pular-sport/fans.htm

Enough beer makes it OK, though.

I went to my first and so far only baseball game this time last year in New York - what really surprised me was that even at my age I was ID'd each time I bought a beer 

Wat,

Only trying to put some perspective on the relative popularity of various sports per internet chatter. Cricket was, as I suspected based on the populations of supporting nations, very high on the list.

What constitutes a boring sport? Well that's likely a cultural thing and depends on what you were raised watching. I find all those 0-0 ties in soccer painfully boring, but it's number one on the list. On the other hand I enjoy watching baseball and even listening to it on the radio during summer evenings. Very relaxing.

As far as the differences between field hockey and ice hockey, or baseball and rounders, those are readily Google-able (though field hockey and ice hockey seem self-descriptive enough to me).

Sports are not unlike classical music; variations on a theme.

With Microsoft in my region there are many Asian-born workers now living here. At times I pass by Cricket being played on public baseball fields. I'll have to have a look. As I enjoy baseball, I suspect I'd get the gist of it. 2.5 billion Cricket fans can't be wrong.

I think it must have been the short trousers and lollipop in your mouth that made them check Chris. 

Joe,

I like the way you Yanks have World Series with only US teams participating. 

Baseball I guess is the equivalent of cricket in that the action can be very intermittent but in both there can be a tremendous sense of tension as the game builds. The One Day games and T20 format were introduced in cricket to attract more people who want more action and a result on the same day. I think it's working.

Although I enjoy American Football it can be a pain in the ass to watch with the game built around TV ads. I think ice hockey is more exciting.

ATB

Steve

Ice hockey is pretty good watch live. I can't get excited by a game on TV, and I'm not interested enough to buy (expensive) tickets, but if someone comps me to a Canucks game, I'll usually go.

Enough beer helps any sport...  and I haven't been ID'd in a long time. I use to work for a division of Qualcomm, so saw the baseball team when I was in SD. All I remember was the 1.5 hour wait to get out of the car park at the end.

That said having been to F1 in person, I prefer the TV version as you can enjoy all aspects of the course and drama, not just the bit of the track in front of you.

Flames vs Canucks at the 'Dome is always a good game, with ice hockey the pace is good, the ad breaks, not so much.

The Aussies are here and are already chipping away. Sigh. Clarke's 'rejection' of sledging a joke.

How refreshing it was to have NZ here

Bruce