As made by Ceci.
cricket with balls
just another bullshit cricket blog
Tagged with spirit of cricket …
the spirit of cricket is safe in the hands of australia and pakistan
You know, programs, little annoying pieces of paper, and other junk you get.
Most of them have the words MCC spirit of cricket on them.
Not because that phrase is so universal that everyone uses it, but because they are sponsoring the series.
Can you think of two worse teams to sponsor for the spirit of cricket?
It seems like some sort of ironic marketing campaign.
Let’s use the team with the ball biting captain and the team with the sledging captain and see how many people laugh at our campaign.
I just realised I am so bored waiting for the game I am talking about sponsor cards.
It hasn’t rained since I got here, just one guy driving around the ground.
Again and again, and again.
The spirit of cricket
The Spirit of Cricket is like a huge heavy imaginary version of the bible.
You can use any part of it to prove you are with the spirit of the game, and any part of it to prove your opposition are filthy assholes.
There is nothing more fluid than the spirit of cricket.
It is a magical cape that you can wear and tell others that they are dirty cheats.
One day it tells people off for sledging.
Occasionally for time wasting.
Sometimes it talks about walking.
It covers a lot: match fixing, running out batsman who are congratulating team mates, handling the ball. chucking, underarm, cheating at the toss, taking the fielders word, bouncing tail enders, moving the fielders backwards instead of forwards, ball tampering, excessive appealing, and appealing for wickets you know aren’t out.
This is just the tip of the iceberg, I haven’t even mentioned clapping the opposition captain when he comes into bat.
There actually is no unified spirit of cricket.
How can there be?
All these different nationalities play in different ways, so how can anyone expect them all to agree on this invisible concept.
It’s great to say cricket has a spirit, but it has millions of spirits.
If someone has created what they believe to be a definitive spirit of cricket guide (and I bet there is a few), if I got 50 cricket fans together from all over the globe, I doubt we could find 5 who would agree with every point in it.
And even if all the countries did decide to go with one version, no one would agree on the way to interpret it.
Just like the bible, or the Koran, or the Torah, or the Vedas, or Red Medicine by Fugazi.
cricket myths #1
The spirit of cricket.
Why is cricket some sport above all others in morals?
This is the sport of bodyline, of underarms, of organised sledging, of riots, of racism, or caste systems, of class divides, of so much shit it’s a wonder it ever made it this far.
The spirit of cricket is bullshit.
Protect the integrity of the game, sure, don’t calling anyone a stupid nigger poofter, sure, but let us not hold ourselves above other sports.
We are just another sport, it happens to be my favourite, and probably yours, but if cricket really had a spirit, it would be and old pompous hairy bastard who would refuse to sit in the same change room as lowly professional cricketers.
And we would still love it.
Let us not forget that the phrase spirit of cricket is often espoused by older people who played in segregated times.
cricketwithballs
Australia 1 Spirit of cricket 0
With Paul Collingwood having nails inserted through his hands, today is the perfect day to talk about Australia going back to number one on the one day charts.
The fact that they went past South Africa is even more perfect.
Why?
Here are two teams that would not hesitate to run out a batsman who had been knocked to the ground.
The great Brendon Julian did so in the Caribbean, knocking little battler Sherwin Campbell to the ground in what appeared to be a pre mediated hit, and then Australia ran him out.
South Africa would not hesitate to knock someone over and run them out, they probably just haven’t thought of it yet.
We now know England can join that list, whether that improves their one day prowess is yet to be seen.
The fact he apologised and was guilty about it says they probably won’t do it again, remember there is nothing more important to a cricketer than public opinion (IE: what his sponsors will think).
New Zealand getting upset is a bit much. Stephen Fleming used his go slow tactics to edge Australia out of a one day tournament, and McCullum doesn’t mind running out a batsman who is celebrating their team mates mile stones.
Even the great West Indies once ran out the legendary Dean Jones when he was bowled off a no ball and he started walking off, with Dujon telling Jones afterwards, yeah we knew it was against the rules.
Then again, knowing Deano, he probably deserved it.
India recently sent out a batsman with two right hand gloves, that was suspiciously close to the end of play, that suspiciously looked like time wasting. And have had more infringements than any other team in the last 10 years.
Pakistani players got away with more ball tampering than anyone other than Michael Atherton, or a man with crabs.
Sri Lanka allowed their captain to cheat every third time he batted for years, calling for a runner because of how fat he was.
This is the spirit of cricket.
