In lieu of missing The Superbowl, March Madness, NFL Draft, and UofM's spring game, I've taken to watching Indian Premiere League Cricket. IPL is somewhat new here and involves teams from within India playing each other in short Twenty20 matches. I'm not about to explain to you what this means, but just know that the games are 3-4 hrs instead of the usual test matches that can take days! My team, Chennai Super Kings (CSK), has come from behind to make it into the IPL Finals, which is tomorrow.
I have managed to learn the basic rules of scoring and getting out, etc, but there is still a lot I don't understand (leg bye- what?!) and it's just not as interesting as other sports (except for golf, which isn't really a sport anyways). But the real attraction to rooting for CSK is that it combines my two favorite things; love of India (Tamil Nadu specifically) and organized sports induced unity. Plus, their team colors are blue and yellow, how could I
not root for them?!
I got so caught up that the other night I stayed up past my bedtime, on a school night, by myself, to watch CSK beat the defending champion Deccan Chargers in the semi-finals. Since I dont have a TV, I followed the online crincinfo.com play-by-play. It was just like watching the UofM games on ESPN Gamecast, minus the cute field graphics. Tomorrow night I'll be watching the match at some sports bar with Jacob, Shyam, and Hamsa, hopefully surrounded by crazed CSK fans. I feel pretty lucky to be here for this!
Here is a pic of me with my cool new CSK waterbottle:
Nice to know that you are a CSK! I roar for CSK too.
ReplyDeleteToo bad that you say Cricket is not very interesting ( I actually find golf interesting as well, but Cricket is definitely very very very interesting, even the ones that go for days!)
well anyways, let's hope CSK win tomorrow
PS: Leg bye is when the batsman has not hit the ball with his bat, but the ball has hit the batsman's body or gear and they take runs ;)
That picture makes me think of Little Miss Sunshine. Cute!
ReplyDeleteI've always wanted to know more about cricket. I think it's great that you're getting to learn, and watch, and root for a (hopefully) winning team.
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