Cricket: My View, Myself Wk25

I don’t like cricket, I LOVE cricket!

A lot of my Steemian friends know this saying of mine all too well.

There are four questions we must answer in this contest, so let me give you my answers to get them out of the way.

Question	Answer
What do you understand by the word Cricket?	It can be either an insect or a sport. In sport the word comes from old English word “cricke” which means "stick"
Have you played it before?	There can only be one answer, YES!
Tell us either what you like or dislike about this game	What I like is that it is never over until the last ball is bowled
Mention 5 BBL or PSL cricket teams	Islamabad United, Karachi Kings, Lahore Qalandars, Multan Sultans, Peshawar Zalmi

Cricket!

It is my uncle who is to blame for me starting to like cricket. As a small girl, I can remember how he used to cut the grass with the radio tucked between his shoulder and his chin while listening to a cricket game. Those were the days when a game was 3 or 5 days long, and today it is still known as test cricket.

Soon the radio moved from him to my lap, and I was hooked on a game that dates back as far as the 17th century, which is not only played with one stick but by twenty-two men and their sticks, or bat as we call it, and one ball on a round field. Yes, there are two teams that alternate between hitting and fielding the ball. One team’s objective is to stop the batting team from scoring, and the other is to score as many runs as they can against the opposition.

I was in awe of the might of the West Indies cricket team and of my own country team, which no longer could play international cricket due to apartheid. However, it was my father who hindered me from listening to cricket, as the radio always landed by him and he listened to his favorite sport, rugby.

In 1971, it all changed. Limited overs (there are six balls in an over) of 50 were introduced, ODI’s (one-day matches). The fun started. A game was played in +/- 7 to 8 hours. This changed the world of cricket forever. It was time to get involved, no matter your age, nor gender.

After 21 long years, the ban against South Africa was lifted, and we started to see families making cricket an outing. This is exactly what we did. It was time to wear the shirts of our favorite teams, color our faces, make banners, and have that famous South African braai (barbeque) next to the field.

Then I had my son, and there was only one sport he had to play, and that was cricket. I remember clearly how I used to take 5% of the profit from the take-away side of our restaurant to buy him a proper cricket kit. Those days, the top of the rank was Kookaburra. I went all out, even buying a cricket box with his name on it.

Soon he was playing for the school team, and we would make an outing of watching him play. The whole family, even grandpa and grandma, would take the afternoon off. As if that wasn't good enough, I decided that I wanted to become an umpire, did a course and received my certificate to umpire junior matches.

When my son went to high school, Grey College in Bloemfontein, which was 360 km from home, I would drive there just to watch him play for an hour or so, and then I would drive all the way back home again, six hours of driving. It is one of the schools in South Africa that produced some of our top cricket players, including our beloved captain and family friend, Hansie Cronje.

At home, we took to indoor action cricket and had our own team for our restaurant. What a way to wind down a day! I loved every moment of it and would not miss playing a game. Were we good? I don’t think so, but we enjoyed playing, and that was all that matters.

As if ODI’s were not enough Twenty20 matches of 20 overs per side were introduced in 2005. A cricket match now lasts +/- 3 hours. We no longer take our meat for a braai. No, we are too scared that we are going to miss some action. It is an electric, quick, and thrilling match to watch with people singing, doing the Mexican wave, and DJ’s playing those all-time favorite songs like, “Living next door to Alice.” Oh yes, let’s not forget those colorful banners.

One of these matches is very special to me: Pink Day.🎀 It is a day, once a year, when our national team, the Proteas, will play an international team on the Wanderers Cricket Ground in Johannesburg to raise awareness and funds for breast cancer. If you want to see cricket players and men dress in pink, come to South Africa for a Pink Day, and I will show you how it is done.

I had three cricket dreams.
› I wanted to go to Lords (England) with my son.
› I wanted to stand in the middle of the MCG (Melbourn Cricket Ground).
›I wanted to meet Sachin Tendulkar from India.

Well, I am still waiting for my son to take me to Lords. I did stand in the middle of the MCG, plus I got to shout my name, and I met my all-time cricket hero, Sachin Tendulkar.

I’ve always said that I would love to visit at least one famous ground of all the teams that play international cricket. I now visit them, but from the comfort of my couch or bed, no matter the time of the day. If I can watch a cricket match, I will do it! Just last night, we watched cricket until after midnight. It was a terrible outcome for South Africa, but it was wonderful to see the West Indies finding their cricket legs again. South Africa lost the series 3-0

Oh yes, I still don’t shout for the Aussies; my favorite team is still South Africa, and currently my favorite players are Quinton de Kock (South Africa), Virat Kohli (India), and Babar Azam (Pakistan).

As you can see, I don’t like cricket… #ilovecricket

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