The test match between Sri Lanka and England begins the final day today with England in an undefeatable position. At the end of the fourth day they had a lead of 389 runs with two wickets remaining. It is all but certain that the England captain will declare their innings closed at the overnight score, leaving Sri Lanka with the target of 390 to win in just one day, which will consist of about 90 overs. (Each over consists of six deliveries so we are talking about 540 deliveries.)
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So I pretty much wasted the entire Saturday morning watching the third day of the Test match between England and Sri Lanka. These Test matches are the classic international form of the game, lasting five days, with each side getting two innings. It is more leisurely than the more recent innovations in which each side bats just once for a limited number of overs (50 for a one-day game and 20 for the three-hour version) and where a decision is guaranteed. (For those who have no idea what cricket is about, please see the primer that I wrote back in 2006.)
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As part of my ongoing quest to convert readers of this blog into becoming cricket fans, I thought I would share a short clip from 1975 in which West Indian Alvin Kallicharan gives a gorgeous batting display. What makes this even more remarkable is that he scored these runs not off some journeyman bowler but against Dennis Lillee of Australia, a magnificent fast bowler who, along with Michael Holding of the West Indies, had the smoothest and best bowling actions that I have ever seen.
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It’s been awhile since I wrote about cricket. The Sri Lankan cricket team is touring England right now and on June 3, 2014, during the deciding game in the five-match series of one-day games that Sri Lanka won 3-2), there occurred something that has caused a huge controversy. Americans will be mystified as to why there was even a fuss about this when I explain what happened using an analogy from baseball.
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In the tournament being played in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka beat West Indies in the first semi-final and India beat South Africa in the second to set up the final on Sunday between the two sub-continent nations. (Update: For those who don’t understand cricket, I wrote a post back in 2006 that explains the game as briefly as I could.)
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This tournament is currently taking place in Bangladesh and there have been some surprising outcomes. The tournament is structured with eight teams (Bangladesh, Nepal, Afghanistan, Hong Kong, Netherlands, Zimbabwe, Ireland, and the United Arab Emirates) playing in a preliminary tournament in which the top two teams would join the eight top-ranked teams (South Africa, India, Australia, Pakistan, New Zealand, West Indies, England, and Sri Lanka).
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It was great to hear that Afghanistan beat Bangladesh in a one-day international game at the Asia Cup tournament currently being played. It marks the first time Afghanistan had beaten a Test playing nation since the national team was formed in 2001. For a weary war-torn country, achievements in seemingly frivolous pastimes can be quite a morale booster.
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When Australia toured England last summer, they were beaten 3-0 in the five Test series, with two no-decisions (‘draws’ in cricket-speak), one of which could easily have been an additional loss. Then six months later, England toured Australia and just received a massive drubbing, losing 5-0. Such clean sweeps are rare. I do not recall a previous time when dominance between two teams switched so overwhelmingly in such a short time and I am at a loss to explain it, though to be fair, I have mainly been following the top-line scores and not in detail. I am sure that England and Australian cricket fans can probe more deeply. [Read more…]

The country has qualified for the 2015 Cricket World Cup to be played in Australia and New Zealand. Given the fact that this country has been in pretty much a permanent state of major war for the past three decades, that turmoil in the country has seemed to be continual fact of life, and the fact that cricket is relatively new to that country, this is a remarkable achievement. [Read more…]

As regular readers know, I was a huge cricket fan in my youth, losing touch with the game after I came to the US. But with the advent of the internet, I have rekindled my interest and started following it again. One of the big surprises for me was to discover that women’s cricket is now being played at the international level. Back when I was a boy, girls did not play at all at any level, not being included even when boys formed pick up games. [Read more…]