Episode Transcript
All right. Hey Amanda, guess what?
What?
Match fixing allegations are back, baby. So just last month in the IPL, that's india's premier cricket league for suspected Rajasthan Royals home stadium. Thanks to the anti corruption unit of the Indian cricket board, right?
I know straight out of their luxury boxes at this Sawai mansingh stadium during the royals capitals match all four suspects have been handed over to the police for questioning seriously
illegal gambling, man it's alive and well.
It is.
And it's all over the world and you just got to love it and embrace it, I guess.
You do.
But what does gambling have to do with becoming more cultured and curious, Pete?
Not gambling, cricket. I'm going to tell you what cricket has to do with being more cultured and curious because we got to learn to appreciate varying perspectives and values. That's why. We have to want to care to learn about other countries, histories, and traditions.
We have to have at least a modicum of self awareness to know we aren't the only people on this planet that matter. Selfish Americans. Did you know in 1994, when America hosted the FIFA World Cup soccer tournament, just 10 percent of Americans knew it was even happening? In their own country. And today, not only do Americans know about soccer, but 33 percent of Americans who follow the sport describe themselves as avid soccer fans. Avid.
But are they even fans? Because if they were, they'd call themselves football fans.
Did you just say food, football, football fans? Well, they say they're fans. My point is it caught on three decades after soccer's first big American out and cricket is on its way to the world's biggest stage in June, 2024 people.
The United States will jointly with the West Indies host the men's T20 cricket world cup, and around a third of the 55 matches will take place right here. In the United States, the American team as host automatically, automatically qualifies for the tournament. It's first ever top tier competition. And here's hoping it's a freaking coming out party for the Americans.
I mean, it's really the only reason why the U S would ever make it into a cricket tournament.
First of all, shut up. But second of all, that is wrong. That is totally true. That is totally true.
Hey everyone, welcome to sort of sophisticated, a podcast rooted in becoming more cultured and curious where we endeavor to suspend judgment, expand our worldview, and learn to appreciate varying perspectives and values,
but really it's a show where we hope to enlighten anyone who cares on topics that might make them more interesting and well versed humans and just dangerous enough to hold their own in this sophisticated world, sort of.
And today we'll be taking a beginner's crash course in all things cricket.
Not like the insect that's known for good luck people. I mean like the second most popular sport in the world. .
And today we have a special guest. He's very fashionable, brilliant, and the best Aussie that I know. And he also owns this fabulous men's clothing line and not only owns, designs the fabrics, which are mind blowing.
Wait, you're the designer too? What? I'm wearing one of your design shirts right now? I didn't know that. I just, that is amazing.
Pete just walked into the store and bought something, but,
um, I didn't know.
Yeah.
That's awesome. Awesome.
Right here, right here. So this is Mr. Evan Sturrock,
AKA, Joe Bananas.
Where did Joe Bananas come from?
That's a long story. Not for this podcast. Maybe another one, but thanks for having me on the show, guys. This is awesome.
It's good to have you.
Evan's gonna school Peter today and I'm actually, that's what I'm excited for.
That is why he's on the show. To make sure we do everything right, but more importantly, I also heard that Evan was The most famous all star cricket player in Australia.
Is that true Amanda?
We're gonna go with it because I know nothing about cricket.
Yeah, absolutely. Yes. Definitely not, guys. Definitely not. Love watching the game. Love watching the game.
All right. So you know, you know enough to be dangerous and you're gonna, you can correct me.
Oh, absolutely.
When I screw stuff up.
That's what you're gonna do. All right. I love it. Okay. So Evan, funny story. Full disclosure. I've never played cricket. Cause after all, I'm American. But I do watch it. Well, recently I watch it. So the other morning I'm running my dog. In my neighborhood and I ran by this park and I saw a bunch of gentlemen playing cricket.
So they've been doing this every Saturday morning for like the last few months. I haven't paid any attention, but I knew I was queuing up this episode. So,
and I call bullshit. You did not see people playing cricket in the park. No, no, no.
They do it every, they do it every Saturday morning, seven o'clock.
Yes, they do.
I don't believe you.
Trust me, I have. No, I have ignored this for months. This is the first time I stopped because I knew I was going to do this episode. So I sit there, I'm watching for like 10 minutes, right? And. I got my dog with me and all of a sudden this squirrel bolts like across the field grabs one of the bales and takes off with it in its mouth up a friggin tree, right?
So everybody's freaking out. All these guys are running over trying to figure out what to do with. And I let my dog, I have a German short hair pointer. She's 18 months old. I let my dog off the leash and she goes bat shit crazy for the squirrel and just chase the squirrel right up the tree, flying around everything.
The squirrel actually drops the bail. It actually works, right?
Instant dismissal.
It was, it was fantastic. It was absolutely fantastic! So all these dudes are like, Oh my God, you're a hero. Good news, bad news. Here's the problem with that whole story.
It's a lie.
It's, it's not a lie. They got to start playing cricket again.
I couldn't get my dog back on the leash for like a friggin hour because she just kept running around the damn park. So it sucked. But anyway. It was awesome.
So I'm going to play along with this because I still don't fully believe you, but either way it's going to be an epic episode.
How can I make that story up? That's not a made up story.
Cause you're a story topper.
That is a, that is a dumb story to make up.
Fair enough. But I still have no clue what a bail and a wicked is. So let's see how this goes. And really in all seriousness, I think it's the definition part of the episode because I'm going to guess most of our listeners have no idea either.
First of all, Evan knows what a bail and a wicked is. Second of all, there is no definition part of this episode. So I'm just going to tell you right now, the bail is the thing that you need to like. Like, get off the wicket to like, get out, get somebody out in cricket. Oh, wait, I just busted. I just busted a rhyme.
A wicket to get out in cricket. I'm hysterical.
It's never been done before.
Yeah. I'm going to let Evan take this one.
Evan, what is a bale and a wicket? What's a bale and a wicket? So the wickets are the three sticks, wooden sticks that you crease. Um, and on top of those three sticks, there are two bales.
And in order to get someone out, well, there's a couple of ways to get someone out, but to get them out, you've got to actually dislodge the bail from the wicket.
Super technical.
All five of these pieces are free pieces.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Okay. Hey, don't rain on my parade. I got, I got this in here further.
We'll get it. We'll get, we'll let Evan get to this stuff. First of all, he also introduced something called a crease that nobody knows about. So we're going to have to explain that too. All right. So. Listen up people. I'm just gonna buzz through sort of cricket in two seconds or less so everybody can understand it.
We ready?
No, I need the word of the day.
Oh, oh the word of the day I've totally forgot the word of the day. Folderall.
What?
Folderall.
Does this go with the crease?
Our challenge is to work this word into the podcast somewhere and make it seem like we meant to. Okay definition, please. Folderall It's like nonsense talk Like the shit I do all the time.
Most of what I say is full of folder.
All this should be called the folderall or a podcast.
So that doesn't count because it was too fast, but there you go. That's all we got to do. All right. So you guys got to figure out how to work it in.
Okay. Let's just, let's just jump in then. Okay. All right. I guess guys teach me all about,
here we go.
Ready in two minutes or less. You got two sides, one out in the field and one in each man that's on the team. That's in goes out. And when he's out, he comes back in, and the next man goes in until he's out. When a man goes out to go in, the men who are out try to get him out, and when they go out, he goes back in.
Are you following me so far?
I don't even know what the heck is happening.
Relax, it gets easier. When they're all out, the side that's out comes in, and the side that's been in goes out and tries to get all those coming in out. Then there are men called umpires who stay out all the time and decide when the men who are in are out and depending on weather conditions the umpires can also send everybody in no matter if they're in or out and Finally when both sides have been in and all the men are out the game's over.
Okay, Evan Did you even understand anything he just said because it sounds like nonsense.
Not a single thing. That's complete folderall
Listen, that's like that. I, I got that. I, I Googled, I Googled that crap, right? It was like, I guess cricket people
confuse me.
People cricket. People think that's funny. I don't know. It's, it's whatever or confusing. I just, I just, I just Googled it. Okay. All right, whatever.
Okay. So give me the real real then
The real real on cricket.
All right, i'm gonna give you the real real evan jump in and correct me if i'm wrong Cricket is a bat and ball game. It's like, uh baseball So it's played between two teams consisting of 11 players each on this oval shaped field with a pitch in the middle. The pitch is sort of like the smaller space where like the batter and the, the, let's call it the batter and the pitcher, but we're going to fix that later, like where they stand and do their work.
It's super popular in countries like India, England, Australia, Pakistan, and like a bunch of others. So here are the basics. First, the whole objective of the game is to score more runs than the opposing team.
That tracks, because you said it's like baseball, so I got that.
Absolutely. And you do this by hitting the ball with a bat and running between two sets of wickets about 60 feet apart from each other. Am I right, Evan?
About that. Okay.
Alright, but the wickets are the three sticky things.
Don't ask me, ask Evan. Correct.
Okay, got it.
The three sticky things. The three sticky things. Yes.
With something on top.
Yeah, and the whole idea is that the defensive team has to knock these bales off the court. I guess stumps, like the whole thing is called a wicket, but the bails got to get knocked off the stumps, so they get them out.
That's the defensive team's job.
Okay, so then when do I swing? Cause I'm starting to get the idea that this is going to be a very bad podcast episode, cause no one can see what you're talking about.
That's fine, just Google that shit. It'll be, it'll be absolutely fine. Right, go online people, Google the image.
All right, fair enough simple enough. All right. Anyway, then you have like the playing equipment You got a bat right used by the batsmen. We don't call them batters. They're batsmen to hit the ball You got a ball same as like a baseball, right?
It's kind of like a baseball it's kind but it's really not
what do we got
and in fact pete i've uh I've brought something here.
You brought you brought you brought a ball.
I've got a gift
You got a gift. Let's go. Let's see it. Oh my god. All right, amanda. I am looking at a signed A signed cricket ball by the most famous cricket Aussie player in the world, Evan Sturrock.
It is definitely not signed by the most famous cricket player in the world.
Let's get that clear.
For all of you playing along at home, it's not like a baseball. It's like a pool ball, kind of like a, like a billiard.
It looks like a bocce ball.
It's a little, yeah. Like it's a smaller version of a bocce ball. It feels like a billiards ball, but it's the size of a baseball.
So it's hard as shit.
So there you go, people. Now you understand. Thank you. That was awesome. Do I get to keep this?
Yeah, absolutely. That's yours. Oh, you're signed.
Thank you. I love it. All right. Uh, and then we got the wickets. We already talked about the wickets, so I'm bored of that already. Okay.
Then there's the fielding team. If you're thinking about baseball, that's the one in the outfield and they position players anywhere around the field with one player designated as the bowler and another player as the wicket keeper.
Is that the pitcher or the catcher?
That's the catcher.
Wicket keepers, catcher.
Wicket keeper is the catcher.
Bowler is the?
The bowler. Yeah.
The bowler pitcher? Yeah. In baseball. Pitcher.
Pitcher. Got it. And then you get catcher or Wiki w
Oh,
we just call the Wiki. W It's like a wiki, but it's a WI
liked it. The Wiki. All right. And then the people in the field.
Wait, the catcher is the W Wiki.
The catcher's, the wiki. Yes. As just said.
And the pitcher is the bowler.
Correct. You got it. Absolutely. And then the people in the field, they, they go anywhere in the field. Where do they go?
The fielders. They can go, they, they can go anywhere. They, uh, they tend to have a designated spot, usually directed by the captain or the bowler.
And is that all based on like film that they watch from
like, there's a lot of, a lot of strategy as to why they're where they are.
Yeah. Yeah. Got it. Got it. So they know exactly where they're going and what they're doing with each batter, with each batsman.
Each batsman, every single ball.
I got you. I got you.
I got you. All right. All right. Then you got the phases of play. So for bowling, you got the bowler. And his job is to chuck the ball in an incredibly strange motion, right at the batsman's legs at the opposite end of the pitch, basically trying to snap this guy's legs in half so he can get the better out.
I'm just going to say guys, before we get too much further into this, like
what
episode, um, you say bowler, I think bowling, but we're not talking about balls and pins. We're talking about cricket. So I'm just screwed. So just laying that out there. Okay.
Just think of it. Think of baseball. It's more like baseball than it, but they just call them bowlers instead of pitchers.
That's it That's the only similarity to bowling. I don't I don't want bowling to well, you know, I guess Yeah, they're 60 feet away the pins. But anyway, you get the idea think baseball don't think bowling. Okay. Okay All right, then it's the batsman's turn. He's got two jobs. The first one is easy.
It's just try not to die Okay The second one is to try to hit the missile coming at him like at a hundred miles an hour and to score a run And runs are scored by either running between the wickets or hitting the ball to the boundaries, and we'll get into that in a second. And then finally there's the fielding. The fielding team's whole job is to prevent the batter from scoring runs by trying to get them out through various means.
So how's do get them out besides knocking a ball off a wicket and trying to break their legs? .
Okay. There's like a hundred ways, evan. Don't get all technical on me and gimme like all 800 ways to get someone out. We're going through the simple ones for my American friends.
I'm Australian, so I'll keep it super simple.
Yeah, thank you . Alright, and first of all, they don't call it out, Amanda, they call it being dismissed. For those of you following along at home, that's the sophisticated word.
In cricket for getting called out you're dismissed. It's so Civilized and now you're more sophisticated. You're welcome
or just sorta.
Oh, yeah a little bit. All right. Anyway, here the basics So number one you can be bowled out the ball hits the stumps knocks over the bales Like you hit the wicket in it bust in half, right?
We talked about that already, right? All right, Evan
Yep.
All right, you can fly out like just in baseball the fielder catches the ball in Midair.
Yeah. That's called caught out.
That's called what?
Caught. Caught out. To be caught. Yeah. Caught.
Oh, caught out. Caught out. They don't use Be caught. Do they use gloves?
They don't use gloves, do they?
No. No, no. We're real men. No. and women.
Absolutely they are. It is amazing to watch this.
Only, only the Wiki has gloves.
Okay. All right. So the catcher, the wiki's got gloves, but everybody else has got to catch this bare handed and I'm telling you, I'm holding a ball right now that Evan gave me, you don't want to catch this thing. Barehanded. I'll tell you that right now.
No, you
All right. Then you could be, I guess you could be run out. Okay, the batsman fails to reach the opposite crease before the bail is knocked off the stump.
Yep, that's it. And you, and when, when you, when you hit the other end, your bat actually has to be on the ground as it passes the line.
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. I saw that.
You can't just run over it or have your bat in the air. They'll review it. If the bat isn't actually, it's got to hit the ground, right?
I love we got Evan here. He's getting, he's getting into it with me. I love it. All right. You can get stumped. I don't know what the hell that, I guess.
What, what's stumped? What's stumped?
That's when the wicked keeper. Catches the ball if it goes past you and he then literally touches it into the stumps
But he's got to catch it like on the fly or no
This is going to get technical depending on the speed of the bowler. If he's a fast bowler, he's going to be standing like 20 feet behind the stump.
So he can't do that.
No, he can't get to it fast.
He can't get to it. But if it's a spin ball, it's a much slower ball. The travels slower. Maybe like 80 miles.
That's like a curve ball. People curve baseball. Like a curve ball.
Like a curve ball. But it bounces on the ground. Yep. And can go round is all, and then you can grab it. Then you can stump him.
It's all coming together. Yeah. Yeah. Oh man. You don't wanna get stumped. Okay. And then finally my favorite one, which isn't weird at all, people stay with me here. It's called Leg Before Wicked, LBW. It's where the ball hits the batsman's leg or body, I guess, preventing it from hitting the stumps. Basically it's like interference from the batsman and the umpire rules you out. Right? Like that's, like, that's what he, that's what the, that's what the bowler's shooting for. It's,
exactly. Cause you're basically blocking the ball with your leg, cause you don't want to get,
yeah. Therein lies the snap your legs in half syndrome. That's what it should be called. Snap your legs in half.
So then I'm supposed to hit the ball to prevent it from hitting the wickets, but also to get out of the way so I don't get hit by the bowler. So
there's a lot going on. Okay. It's very complicated. We're at a hundred miles now.
I'm not going to
that's why I said earlier, the batsman's job is to try not to die.
Right. That is literally like this is a, this is a man's sport. This is a big deal. People don't understand this. Listen up. All right. Finally, to make this even more complicated, Cricket is actually played in three different formats. So you sorta gotta know which one you're signing up for to watch in the first place, people. Cause this could get dangerous. So you got Test Cricket, Which is played over five days.
Yeah, you heard me right. Five days with unlimited overs per inning. Then he got one day internationals or ODIs. Each team gets 50 overs to bat. And finally you have T20 cricket. Each team gets 20 overs to bat. T20 cricket is the shortest and by far the most popular format for domestic and international leagues.
All right, I'm going to ask Evan right now.
What?
Evan, what's an over?
So in baseball, you've got, uh, when the pitcher pitches. In cricket, when the bowler bowls, he bowls six times. It's like a set of six bowls. And that is an over. So in T20, then you've got 20 overs, 20 times, 620 balls.
That's a lot of math. You got that, Amanda?
He explained it very well.
Perfect. So here's how it works for my listeners who don't quite understand. Can you imagine if a batter in baseball came up and only got one pitch, one pitch, and then he sat back down. That would be the stupidest thing ever.
So in baseball, we use balls and strikes in cricket. They bowl six overs to keep the batter up there for a longer period of time. Otherwise we'd get people going up, going down, going up, going down. Got it.
Yeah. So that way, if they had unlimited overs, it would go on forever. For
five days. It's amazing. I mean, imagine saying, I'm going to go and watch some baseball for five days straight.
It's the greatest thing in summer in Australia. Like you can, you can break and go to the beach, come back and it's still on, have a sleep for an hour, wake up and it's still on and it just keeps going for five days.
What do they call that? When you go like in Australia, when you go on like a. A hike for like a hundred days, a roundabout, what do they call that thing?
A walkabout.
A walkabout? That's like a walkabout. Who wants to go on a walkabout?
I mean, if you love sport and it goes for five days straight, that's pretty, pretty bloody good.
All right. All right. All right. Hey, I'm getting more cultured and curious, Evan. Good for you. Thank you for teaching me.
So last you have the scoring. You score runs in cricket. We talked about that. And they can be scored by either. All Running between the wickets, like running bases in baseball, or hitting boundaries, like home runs in baseball, except there's two ways of doing this in cricket, either a four or a six. A four is when you hit the ball so damn hard, but it rolls to the boundary without being touched.
And a six is when it hits over the boundary in the air like an actual home run in baseball. So that, like, that's the awesome part of cricket, right? You could score some runs real fast, really awesomely. Uh, if you can start smacking balls pretty far,
it's like having 20 home runs in a single game.
Yeah.
It's exciting.
It's way better than baseball. Exciting because, because people are hitting it to the boundaries all, all the time. And if you're Evan, you're doing that on your six overs. You're probably hitting six overs. Six sixes. Wait, can you hit six sixes? You can't talk to me.
Have you done it? Never, never. No, but you can hit six sixes and you can even get a score higher than 36. How, if there's a no ball in there, but that's just going to confuse.
Wait a second. I thought balls were good. We don't know balls, but you're a eunuch. That's terrible. Who wants to be a eunuch? All right. All right.
Anyway. Um, so basically that is the gyst. I think the important thing is just to recognize that cricket is like a super strategic game If you haven't picked up on that and it requires a ton of teamwork and precision. It's not really just like baseball It's like if baseball and chess had sex And made a baby sport and they decided to name it cricket and just like soccer around the world It is literally a way of life in other countries.
Okay, Peter. So I get it. It is super popular around the world. Um, but I'm going to like pass it off to Ev because I feel like he's going to give us a better history than the Google about cricket. So Ev, tell me what you know about cricket.
Well, look, I mean, the Brits invented it.
And I'm Australian. So, uh, being a British colony once upon a time, um, we love cricket.
but do we like, but do we like the Brits?
I mean, that's, that's, that's not really for me to say.
All right.
Yeah, we want, we want to keep our listeners. All right, go ahead.
So believe it or not. I mean, A lot of cricket was actually played here in America back in the day.
It was, it was. That's a fun fact later. Don't give that away. Keep going.
I won't. So yeah, cricket is played all over the world, obviously in, uh, everywhere. The British empire spread their wings. and particularly in India, it is, it is as big a sport
so what I'm hearing is, is that basically if you were colonized by Britain, you probably have cricket
it's in the blood. If you were colonized by England, it's in the blood.
So we're talking like India, Pakistan, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, the West Indies.
Yep. All of it.
All of these. Okay.
All of, all of them. Absolutely. Powerhouses. Absolutely.
Not America.
Not, no, not, not America. .
There's a lot of culture behind cricket as well, though, just for the, like, as far as like backyard cricket goes in Australia, like it's,
did you say backyard? There's backyard cricket. Yeah. Is that like fight club? Like we don't talk about fight club. Is that like,
children are involved. But you know, like any family gathering, like Christmas, Easter, having a barbecue, you know, If someone pulls out a bat, usually you use the wheelie bin, your big trash can type thing.
I don't know what you call it here.
A trash can?
A wheelie bin. Okay. The big ones on wheels. Um, and you use that as the stumps. And if you hit it out of the garden,
this is interesting. This is like our old, our old version of stick ball, like back in the day.
And like, like in the 13 colonies, this is classic. I got a question for you as far as sort of like the five day and the one day. Is this like, so in football we have, um, tailgating. So everybody goes early, right? They get there, they make their brats and their beer and they hang out for like three hours before the game even starts.
And they go into the stadium and they watch football is like an eight hour cricket match. Is that like the same concept where like cultures are coming together? People are chilling out. you're like having fun the whole day, like experiencing the game together. Is it the same idea?
I think,
or are you just like watching the whole time?
I mean, there are purists that sit there with, you know, headphones in there listening, but I will be honest with you and say that like most people go to a test. So they can sit in the sun all day and drink.
Okay. Yeah, that right. Exactly.
I mean, there's nothing outside the stadium because you're in it watching it.
Yeah. But, but the idea is that you're enjoying time with camaraderie. It's joining time with family, friends, like hanging. Okay. Right. Yeah. Yeah. It's so it's super culturally significant. Ev, my sort of, my view of this, this is one person's view, this is my American view of it. I'm sort of wondering if it comes down to the reason it's a way of life and so popular in other places. Um, socioeconomically, it's not expensive to play. Like am I, am I being an entitled American right now or am I sort of on.
And I think of soccer. I think of cricket. It's super easy. You could play it on a, on a dirt patch and with a ball,
the same way that football is played all over the world. Yeah, it is played all over the world. Right. All you need, you don't even need three stumps. You get three sticks
or a wheelie bin
or a wheelie bin
sort of picking up on why it's so important. Prolific all over the world and us is entitled americans. I've just our head up our ass a little bit I'm, totally with you all right, so, i'm sort of hoping that with the whole idea of the advances in technology and the whole media coverage thing that americans are gonna start to Care about this a little bit more and espn is going to start to put it on their broadcast network here.
Let's go people. Let's hope
you guys have the major league cricket You
Yeah
just kick off. I know. Just start. I
know. Absolutely. Let's go.
Okay. So, I'm a, cliff note this for everybody?
Let's go. Cliff note this, bitch.
To make sure that I got this, but as well as our listeners, basically crickets popularity is because it's been played for over 500 years.
It has,
it's a bunch of different game formats to choose from. And it's evolving in hopes to gain notoriety and media coverage. And everyone from anywhere has a chance to be great at it. Cause all you need is a stick and a ball or a couple of sticks and a bat.
Nice way to sum it up I like it.
All right. Well, I guess it's time for us to put up or shut up and get on the bandwagon if we're going to become a little more sophisticated,
we need to.
So how do we get Americans to like it?
Well, I thought you'd never ask, but here we are. Welcome to the podcast. Start by trying to take a moment to appreciate a new perspective and care about learning something new and have enough self awareness to know that in order to connect with other people, it's important to care about what they care about.
Like I said, we have to want to care to learn about other countries histories, and if we don't, it'll never catch on. Look, here's the problem. First of all, our culture is way too rich and spoiled, which is basically code for like cultural difference Cricket never got the chance to get in our blood to embed itself in American culture like baseball or football With those big sports.
There isn't a lot of room for anything else
though I would kind of argue that it was kind of the American thing to revolt because Yeah, but I call bullshit on that no cricket
Yeah, well that's, uh, anyway, second lack of exposure, right? Cause of our cultural differences.
Cricket gets like zero exposure in mainstream American media. Major sports shows focus on broadcasting American sports. There's no airtime for cricket. I Googled it and it took me like a minute and that's like a long time on Google, but I found only one ESPN top 10 play of the week that related to cricket one.
What the fuck man, Americans aren't learning anything about cricket. Yeah. Seriously, terrible. Third, it's pretty complex and face it. People, Americans aren't that complex.
Wow. Right.
Hey, I'm just, I'm going cricket's rules and terminology can be pretty overwhelming for a beginner and certainly unfamiliar to Americans who grew up with different sports, the nuances of cricket, like the different game lengths, the test cricket, the ODIs, the T 20, the idea of dismissals instead of outs, the scoring methods.
They take way too long for our average American ADD generation to grasp. Yeah. Am I right?
You're right.
It's it sucks.
But T20 completely different.
It's happening. It's, it's on and it's, it's catching on. And finally, then there's the historical shit, right? Cricket's popularity in the United States actually declined, Evan talked about a little bit in the late 19th century and early 20th century.
It was actually people like liked cricket in the United States, mainly due to the rise of baseball as the national pastime. Yeah. It was a shorter game and holy shit. I cannot believe I am saying that baseball is a shorter game. Kill me now. Cause that's already too long for me.
But Pete, I looked it up. And even with all the stuff that you just talked about, there has been some growth and crickets popularity in the U S and maybe it's because the Aussies are all moving here. I don't know. I mean, I know we have Aussie day, which
wait, what, how many Aussies are moving here?
There's a ton of Aussies. It's great.
Let's go. That's like one. What are you talking about?
There's, a big invasion,
the, aussie. Invasion is happening.
They're. The best, but the U S is developing cricket infrastructure.
They're just starting. Yes, they are.
And initiatives to go ahead and promote the sport. So it's basically a grassroots level.
They're doing it. They're trying.
It's super slow, but they're trying.
So clearly you had cricket at your local park. So.
I think there's still a long way to go, Ev, do you
see, I mean, as an Australian that has come to the United States, I've embraced American sports and it's been fantastic. I will say this about cricket, particularly in T 20, because it was only a relatively new sort of foundation of cricket, um, it's exciting. Like if you go to a T 20 game. You can't not enjoy it. there's so much happening.
They've made it better than baseball. So the whole, so here's, so here's what happened, right? Like cricket, boring American. I don't know. I don't want to watch it. They've now started this T20 in 2007.
So catch up people. It's not that long ago. 15 years ago,
15 years. Yeah.
And now it's better than baseball and shorter than baseball. So catch on, let's go.
Not t20 like who are the who are the best countries? I think I heard India, but that's not t20, right?
He's mad the Aussies mad,
I mean we just did win the World Cup both men's and women's
I'm a roll you through who the best who the best teams are in the world.
All right,
but is this t20?
No, I'm just saying cricket in general. Okay, I don't want to get into like which version
got it Okay,
best cricket teams in the world, India. Sorry You I love you Ev. The juggernaut, the powerhouse ranked number one in the world. Massive fan base, super strong domestic leagues.
Shout out to the IPO and a rich cricketing tradition.
Absolutely, yes. They're always the ones to beat. Yes, they really are.
Now, I will tell you, number two in the world, Evan is W, right? Number two, Australia. That's it. It's happening, right? They won the ICC Cricket World Cup, he just said, right, and
they're super aggressive team. Super tough to beat and Shout out to the am I saying this right baggy greens.
What does that even mean?
Well, so when you get your first cap for Australia in your first Selection for Australia in the test side they give you a cricket cap to wear and it is named the baggy grain
let's go So I love that
called the baggy greens.
I love it.
We are being I think we're like getting so sophisticated This is so great. Okay, then third is in the world is south africa. Another awesome team the pro
proteus
proteus. Okay, fourth Pakistan fifth, New Zealand, New Zealand's of black caps. Not the baggy greens of black caps sixth is England. The birthplace of cricket. And they most recently won the ICC cricket world cup in 2019. Uh, and the T 20 in 2022, but they're sixth.
Cause, uh, they suck now. Do you like beating England?
As an Australian.
What's the best team to beat
I will say this I love beating England, but there's actually nothing better than watching England. All the English people listening, I'm so sorry. Um, there's nothing better than watching England be beaten by somebody, but
anybody
it's almost sweeter than actually beaten,
that's so with soccer, that's how I am with Brazil. Just any, whoever plays Brazil, just, I want Brazil to lose.
It's a big brother, little brother complex.
I love it. All right, then we got Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Afghanistan, 7th, 8th and 9th, respectively.
And finally, rounding out the top 10 is the West Indies.
What technically classifies as the West Indies? Like all of it?
The West Indies?
The Caribbean. It's like a group of independent countries like Cuba, Jamaica, Bahamas.
Come on, pretty mama. And then Trini and Tabag, I mean, come on. It's like all of them down there, you know, the West Indies.
Are they collectively one team?
They are,
but they do play as collectively.
They, they, the 15, I don't know, 15, 13, I don't know, number of countries. They collectively play as one team, which makes them probably awesome.
The West Indies were a massive powerhouse back in the 80s and 90s.
Unfair advantage. They have 15 countries that they get to choose the best cricket players from.
I call bullshit on that. It's fucked up. They should have to play by country. Why do they get to play as the West Indies? That's bullshit. I don't think it's fair. I mean,
I think it's brilliant
how many people are there in America? You guys,
300 million.
Exactly. 300 million people. Yeah. You guys should have an amazing team .
Cause we don't care. That's the problem. That's why we're doing the podcast. Ev, we're trying to get people to like cricket.
So because the U S could potentially be a powerhouse and we're hosting the tournament
Well, we're only hosting the tournament because of the West Indies.
Let's be honest.
So we're going to have a team, right?
We're having a team. It's like the U. S. So the West Indies. Here's how it works. The West Indies are hosting the tournament. They needed America's money and support because we are super awesome to the West Indies and are basically like their big brother.
So they sort of said, Hey, I have an idea. We're going to host, but you're going to host too. So we sort of got the invite and now we have a team and we should, uh, be able to be awesome. I hope, but, um, that's the only reason we got invited because the West Indies were hosting.
It'll be very interesting to see what happens.
There's a lot of money and investment though, being put into cricket in America. Um, I mean, you've got to build grounds there.
We're doing it all. This is why the West, this is, this is the West Indies were pretty smart to like, yeah.
Yeah,
they call big bro and say hey, I got an idea help us out with this
They're gonna have us foot the bill
They're gonna have really with the bill and they're gonna and they're gonna get all this tourism as a result of it because we're only I think we're only doing one third of the games.
So the west indies are doing two thirds of the games. Yes Uh, they're gonna get a lot of tourism For sure
speaking of tourism and going in person to see it Is there like any etiquette that I should be aware of
etiquette? Look at you with etiquette. There's a little etiquette
not for T20.
Oh, come on. All right.
Let's go. So for the players, Not like any of my listeners out there are gonna be like, players anytime soon, But, I'll just run through sort of, etiquette for the, the players. And Evan will keep me honest on this because he's the most famous cricket player of all time. Um, so first in cricket, there's a tradition known as walking where the batsman voluntarily leaves the field.
If they know they're out, even if the umpire hasn't given them the out, not everybody does it, but if you see it, it's a mark of sportsmanship. Am I right?
Totally correct. If you know, you know , and you just walk.
Yeah.
All right. Got it. So don't be surprised people. Second player show respect for good plays by their opponents. So don't freak out if they do that. They do also, I guess they, they do something called Sledge. They ledge each other as well. But we won't get into that here. 'cause I'm trying to pretend everybody in cricket is nice.
Been trying to sledge you all. Uh, all podcast . Okay. Sledging is part of the game .
All right, so what the hell Sledging then
Sledging is. So when you're batting. You know, you're concentrating on the ball that's gonna come in at a hundred miles an hour. Are you? Yeah. Yeah. The guy's very close.
And try not to die
and try not to die. The guy's close to you, like the wicket keeper.
Maybe a couple of the, the fielders that are beside you.
Sounds like I slept with your wife the other night.
That would be like a mild insult.
I love this. It is. This is fantastic.
Pretty profound.
Yeah. So this is like, hey, batter batter. Batter with insults. This is the best ever.
Okay. All right. I love this and then finally, I think the last one I got is respect the spirit of cricket, this, the spirit of cricket is a term used to describe the ethos of fair play, respect and integrity that underpins the game. Upholding the spirit is considered super important in cricket leads around the world. Is this true?
Yeah. I mean, it should be respected in all sports
is it specifically respected in cricket a little more so? I mean, is it more sophisticated?
It is. I mean, but the spirit of all sports, you know, you want to, it's just when it's on the field, it's on the field. When it's off, it's off.
I love it.
I love it.
I feel like we should take some notes from that as a, in all of our American sports, want to guess what time it is?
What time is it?
It's fun fact time.
Fun facts, let's go!
It is, and I think we should play it a little differently this time. We're gonna see if we can surprise Evan with any of our fun facts.
Oh, I'll see if I can.
Okay.
Alright, so after each fun fact, you gotta say if you're surprised or not.
Alright, here we go. Number one. Crickets are considered a delicacy and considered good luck. Oh shit. Wrong cricket.
You're so stupid
Okay. Fine. All right. All right. Number one for real this time. Okay. Cricket begins as a children's game in a small area in Southern England in the 16th century. Don't ask me why it just was.
I don't know why.
Do you know why?
Uh, cause they were bored.
Did you know that one?
No, no,
that was new. That was,
I'm not, no, I have no idea.
All right. Yep. Absolutely. Kids invented the sport.
All right. Number two, the fastest delivery when the bowler bowls, the ball in cricket history was clocked at over a hundred miles an hour. And while that might not seem super impressive to all the baseball enthusiasts out there. Cricket bowlers. Remember, aren't allowed to bend their arm more than 15 degrees.
It's a big deal. A really big deal .
I feel like Evan knew that one. Cause he totally said the ball comes at you at over a hundred miles an hour.
Oh, it's you don't want to face a fast bowler.
No. And if you guys watch it, like it looks super awkward, it is flying, it is flying. And these guys, I got to tell you, they're in my opinion, better than baseball pitchers,
if you change your angle of the bowl, the umpire will pull you off the field. He will, they check, like, they use like imaging, like, I don't, I don't know, like freaking computer imaging to figure out if your elbow has moved more than 15 degrees and they'll pull you out of the game.
Yeah. You can't, you can't bend your elbow and chuck the ball. Basically. The fast bowlers will run in. Uh, like a good I'm trying to do the math of feet to meters right here, so about a hundred feet out or 60 yards out, but they are sprinting and these guys are like six foot five.
Yeah.
And like,
I'm sorry. They run and they huck the ball. Oh yeah.
And they huck the ball. They charge in a and have to have a certain, like a certain angle of delivery. They, yes.
And the angle of delivery. Think of like six foot five. The arm goes up. It doesn't bend.
It can't bend.
The fulcrum is at like seven foot and then they fire a missile.
Yes. And it bounces in front of you.
Number one, it's gonna break your leg. Two. The wicked keeper's supposed to somehow catch that ball. It's crazy.
I feel like we just had three fun facts.
No, that was, that was a lot of fun facts in one. All right.
Number three, the longest recorded cricket match lasted 14 days between England and South Africa
and did you know that?
14 days 14. It gets better to keep in mind. They stop after eight hours of play each day.
So that's really like 45 days Like in eight hour increments, that's how long The longest cricket match last.
Wait, are you telling me it was 14 days? Meaning it was
it went for 14 days consecutively.
No, no. It went for 14 days straight.
Yes.
And if you, and if you broke it up in eight hour increments, it would be 45 days.
Okay. The shortest was played between the West Indies and England, the middle of West Indies.
Uh, it lasted only 10 balls, like,
I don't know, four or five minutes.
Mainly due to field conditions. Uh, but they call it a complete game. Like they actually like, They're like, that was it. It was the game. No, that was just crap. But who won? Three minutes, four minutes. Evan, who won? No. I have no clue, dude.
I just spit the facts. Okay. Okay. It was just part of the fun facts. All right. Number four, although cricket is the world's second most popular sport, it's not an Olympic sport.
But why So at the Paris games in 1900, France wanted cricket to be part of the Olympic games. The problem was there were only two teams, England and France that were willing to participate back then.
It was test cricket, right? So it was like that five day cricket. They play one game. Uh, UK wins the gold and France wins the silver and it ends just like that. So they realized it was like way too long of a game to make it a official Olympic sport.
But enter T20 in 2007. And I think it's just a matter of time. I'm thinking in the next eight to 12 years, cricket is in the Olympics and will catapult to one of the main events in the Olympics.
A hundred percent. Absolutely. I would love to see it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Is rugby an Olympic sport?
I think rugby sevens is now an Olympic sport.
Everything's getting cool. All right. Number five, the score 111 is considered unlucky.
Do you know why, Evan?
Hmm. Um, no ,
I think, I think, I don't know for sure. It's because when the bales fall off the stumps, the stumps that are left look like the number 111.
And so nobody wants the score of 111. They try to like, get by that, like really, really fast.
That tracks. I can get on board with that. Yep.
Uh, number six, Willow wood. Will, Willow wood, seriously? Willow wood is used to make cricket bats. It's used for both its strength and compression.
Uh, you knew that one?
Yeah. I mean, if someone says to you, do you like the sound of Willow? Really? They, that, that's, do you like cricket?
Oh, that is so cool. I feel like I'm in like the cool dudes club now. Yeah.
All right. Finally, finally, believe it or not, cricket used to be, I Evan sort of spoiled this one. Cricket used to be one of the most popular sports in the United States in the 1800s. I can't even believe that.
And then baseball.
And then baseball. Absolutely. During the civil war.
I don't think he'd invented baseball at that stage, which is probably why it was.
So in the 18th, right. We hadn't invented it yet. So the baseball gets invented during the civil war or around like 1860s. And we sort of just jump on board with that whole concept of baseball being America's pastime. Cause we figured out how to make it short, I guess.
Yep.
And killed cricket.
150 years before.
Yeah, but I think, I think T20 is going to change all that. I think we're on to something. I think we got, uh, I think it's going to be amazing.
All right. Well, there you have it. Cricket in all of its glory. But before we send you out into the world to watch the world cup of cricket here in the good old US of A, why don't you break it down for me in little bits that I can remember and become sort of sophisticated.
All right. So here's what you got to do people. First, re listen to this episode right before you decide to watch the first cricket match when the World Cup starts. Second, watch a match or two of the Cricket T20 World Cup on TV, or better yet, grab tickets and go in person. It will be a once in a lifetime event trust me, it will be worth your time. Third, when you're at your next boring business function and there's a lull in the convo, ask one of your colleagues what sport they follow most and why. Fourth, Listen and ask a few relevant questions to show respect and interest. Fifth, wait for a timely break in the combo and tell them you just went to your first cricket match and explain how awesome it was.
Then finally share these interesting and relevant details to seem sort of sophisticated. Number one, Cricket does not have to be boring. Remember, there are three formats. Test cricket, the long one. One day internationals, one day events. And the new T20, it's about two to three hours. So if someone tells you it's long and boring, start educating people.
Number two, it started in England and grew through colonization. The best cricket countries are
australia.
India. Australia. And New Zealand. Number three, They don't bowl like idiots on purpose. The rule is they can't bend their arm more than 15 degrees from where they start their bowl.
That's why it looks weird. Number four, an over doesn't refer to the ending of a game, dummies. It refers to the group of six balls or deliveries bowled to the batsman. And it's similar to an at bat in baseball. And finally, whether you're a fan of cricket or not, if you have any interest in appreciating what other folks enjoy a sport, you need to realize cricket is the second most popular sport in the world, just behind soccer, get on board people.
Again, you always keep one fun fact until the end of the podcast. It is the second most popular sport. I love it. But do you know what else I love? I love the fact that we had Evan here today to give us all of his wisdom on cricket and school us because we are silly Americans who don't actually understand the sport, but hopefully one day it'll be a big deal.
Let's go. It's a big deal.
Hey Evan, so thanks so much for being on our podcast and for putting up with us this whole episode. It's not easy and you're a good sport about it.
Thanks for having me on your
