I always hated cricket when I was younger. I was growing up in 90s Britain when all the football revolution was coming back into play. Cricket to me seemed to be one of those games that your dad and grandad used to play when they were younger. I did enjoy watching various baseball matches on the internet and on foreign satellite channels, though that sport seemed to have a lot more spirit to it.
Now that I’m in my 40s I’ve actually been coaxed into watching the ashes by my 10 year old son. He thinks cricket is ten times more interesting than football and, now that I’ve started watching it myself, I have to agree. The intense feeling when your team is about to score a try beats waiting on a penalty any day, and there’s less violence!!
The one thing I used to hate about watching cricket when i was younger was that our television was too small to show any of the action. Every time the batter hit the ball, the ball would fire across the pitch. The television screen only had a 4:3 picture so you couldn’t see where the ball went or anything.
By the time you’d found out, the round was over. Widescreen televisions used to be so damn expensive and there was no chance of owning one of these in the 80s. Nowadays thankfully, with DVD being so successful, most people own one now and you get a much better picture ratio of 16:9. Cricket is still a hard game to watch as it is still impossible to see what’s going on but at least now you can see a little more of the action as it happens.
One thing I’ve never quite understood about the British sports lover is their fascination with no-frills sports. What I mean by that is that when a sporting event is held in the UK there never seems to be much of a fuss about it. If you look at American Baseball or Football games, they have fireworks and carnivals, shows etc etc. The Americans did try and create a little of that excitement over here by designing the NFL Europe league which was a short-lived American Football league.
There was the Scottish Claymores and the London Monarchs in the league. The games used to start with an hour long party outside the stadiums with music, games, bouncy castles etc. During the games, whenever a touchdown was scored, fireworks went off and replays were shown on a gigantic screen. It was extremely exciting at the time (though when the league folded, it was estimated the country had lost over £30million). It seems obvious that the British sports lover doesn’t care about glitz or glamour, they just want a simple no-nonsense event where they can watch their teams play to win.
This is probably the way it should be of course. Cricket is no different. I find nothing glamorous about the game myself. The uniforms are white and dull, the pitch is dull, and the fans don’t seem that involved in the game.
With that said, Cricket probably takes more money for the country than any other sport (with the exception of football) so who am I to judge the fact that the game doesn’t look like it commands a lot of money!
One thing that’s quite relaxing to know is that there are sports in Britain which don’t have thousands of fans that go to games solely for the purpose of beating each other up. Recently, football has become an absolute joke in the UK. You have the worst fights and disagreements in football, compared to any other sport.
Though it is wrong to generalise, it seems to be fans of teams like Celtic and Rangers who cause the most trouble. A lot of those who support rangers and Celtic have done so out of religious hatred (catholicism vs protestant). The violence has always been terrible in club football, but recently there have been incidents where fans have actually sent nail bombs to Neil Lennon (celtic boss).
There seems to be very little violence in cricket but it is also fairly obvious that many people who enjoy cricket come from a different family background or upbringing. Cricket seems to be more of a working class/upper class sport whereas football is borderline working class. Hundreds of fans think it’s a great idea to get drunk before going to see a football game, which is where a lot of the trouble stems from.
Some might say the reason there is no violence or little violence in cricket matches is because there’s less of a following than that of football. I don’t see how this is true though as cricket is almost as popular as football in the united kingdom with hundreds of thousands of fans worldwide.
Recently I was watching the whole fiasco involving the accusations of match fixing between Pakistan and England. The amount of disbelief shown from everyone astonished me for so many reasons. I have no idea why people can not seem to fathom the fact that wherever there is big money involved, there will be corruption. Because there’s big money in sport, there is guaranteed to be a high level of corruption.
Boxing and Snooker are obviously areas with the worst rates of fraud, probably due to the fact that it’s easier to set up a match involving just 2 people. John Higgins was recently caught on camera offering to lose frames in a match for a 300,000 euro payment. He claimed innocence, stating that he played along as he believed the reporter to be involved with the russian mafia.
In cricket it’s not as easy to fix matches as it takes a lot more teamwork and fraud is easily spotted if large groups are involved (you can see if someone is deliberately creating a fault, or deliberately not playing to their full potential). For what it’s worth, I don’t believe there was any corruption involved in the particular game which caused all the controversy, but I wouldn’t be as quick to write off the idea that match fixing does not necessarily happen.
In football, it would not be tolerated in the slightest but this is perhaps because of the high prices footballers are paid (equivalent to that of some A-list celebrities). Therefore no good player wants to lose his long-term income for a short-term one-off payment (plus there is a chance of losing the ability to play professional football at all if found guilty of match fixing!). Maybe cricket players would be more willing to get involved with match fixing due to the fact that cricket players certainly don’t earn anywhere near what footballers do but I’m not sure.
All i’m saying is that where there’s smoke, there’s fire.
Cricket is really a sport which involves plenty of joy, pleasure and energy. It is really an essential sport in the uk. It’s a game of passion that serves the sentiments and passions of cricket fans. It is a game that is loved by many thousands of individuals. Cricket has won the minds of millions by becoming the most-visited website during the 44-day ICC Cricket World Cup 2011.
Cricket is one thing which has appeal of its own and the whole planet is an integral part of that attraction. It’s one particular sport that’s followed around the world and it is viewed by each and every class of people. It was the preferred game of gentlemen in North of the Woods, although many people opted to watch tennis rather than cricket at first. Cricket is a game of uncertainty and you can regularly expect to be surprised by which team wins in various different matches. The sport has been documented as being played in the South of England during the 16th century.
Cricket is a predominately a male sport but is not exclusive to males only. It’s the favourite sport in india and it’s very rare to find an Indian who isn’t a massive cricket fan.
Cricket is handing out chocolate to get people to vote for her for class president.
If you’ve never taken time out your day to watch live cricket, you may be surprised at just how exciting the sport is. If you don’t have a satellite or cable subscription, it’s extremely easy to watch cricket online. A lot of matches are shown regularly on free-to-air channels which are broadcast over the internet, and some bookmakers websites also show the live action as well.
People who enjoy watching other sports like tennis, baseball, or even softball are the ones most likely to enjoy cricket live streaming. The sport does seem very slow paced to begin with, but in the later rounds the match can become as intense as a basketball game.
One thing I will say is that cricket is one of the rare sports that requires a widescreen television to be able to view all the action. The pitch is quite expansive and when a ball is thrown to the batter, it can sometimes fly for miles before the opposing team has a chance to gain control of it. With a widescreen television, you never have to miss any of the action.
I bought a widescreen monitor when I started watching cricket, and now find that having a widescreen monitor works best for many sports. Watching golf is now more involving as I can see the entire course, and sometimes certain channels allow you to switch camera angles too. So if you ever think about watching live cricket or any sports which utilise an incredibly large pitch, make sure and invest in a widescreen television or monitor!
Watching live streaming football is incredibly easy to do if you have any type of home pc and internet connection. For those who do not know what exactly free football streaming is, it is basically when a football game is broadcast live across the internet from television transmitters overseas.
Anyone with a computer and internet connection can watch football games online easily. This is done by downloading specialist programs to your computer which lets your computer know where the live game video feeds are located on the internet. The program helps you tune into these channels so you can watch the live action from your office or bedroom.
Streaming is a concept which has only appeared in the past few months. Back when we used to own dialup modems, there was no way to watch sports live via the internet. The modems were just too slow but with the arrival of broadband, it is now incredibly simple to watch any type of videos on the internet in realtime with very little slowdown.
It’s not just sports that can be watched on the internet. There is also all kinds of movies and television shows that can be watched live too. The problem that now exists however, is that a lot of copyrighted material has started to appear on many of these internet channels. Movie and television companies are now starting to sue people who download or view copyrighted material on these channels. A big site like youtube contain tons of copyrighted videos alone, so it is easy to see just how bad the problem is becoming.
I have always enjoyed watching rugby games on the television. Growing up in the united kingdom meant that I was introduced to the sport at a very young age. The sport is almost as popular over here as football, with an equally massive fanbase
To most people,the england rugby league can be seen as a more violent version of American Football (the NFL league). In most ways, rugby is a very similar game except the players do not wear as much protective armour and there’s less of a celebration when a team scores.
One good thing about the england rugby league (compared to the football league) is that there is actually a lot less violence coming from the fans. It seems that rugby fans seem to know how to behave themselves when going to a match.
The rugby union games are played between 2 teams. The winning team is the one at the end of the match who has scored more points. Points can be scored in a lot of different ways. Players can score a try by grounding the rugby ball in the goal area (worth 5 points). After scoring a try, the player can also get a conversion kick which can grab another 2 points for the team. If a player also manages to complete a successful penalty kick or a drop goal, the team gets another 3 points. The values of these points has changed over the years but the aim of the game is still the same. Those who haven’t watched a rugby game before should give it a try.
Watching golf games is a fun pastime shared by most households across the world. It has dramatically increased in popularity over the past decade, which is mainly due to how many celebrities play golf in their spare time.
Golf is most popular over in the united states, where there are a lot more tournaments. American Golf stars like Tiger Woods have made the sport more appealling to the younger generation which may also have contributed to its rising popularity.
The television companies have fallen in love with golf and have started showing the pga tournaments on their channels. The sponsorship money they earn is insane as many businesses are now realising just how profitable it can be to advertise their products to golf enthusiasts.
To those who don’t watch golf regularly, the game can seem extremely slow-paced. Compared to sports like tennis or football, the action is slow (much like chess). There has to be precision and technique in every shot and golfers constantly change clubs to ensure they pot the ball in the hole.
I have been to a few golf tournaments myself but i prefer to watch online golf games instead as the weather has always been poor when I’ve gone to watch the sport live. Some of the best tournaments have taken place in Scotland and as beautiful as the country is, it has never been a country known for having the best weather. At least you can’t get wet sitting at your computer in your house.
