[Deanrover]

I am utterly astonished at the love for cricket displayed in this thread.

[vang]

table tennis too.

[luis]

Well I must say I like to watch and/or play almost any sport...

Well being from Argentina Soccer is of course a must, love to watch, can play but I should probably retire soon :-). We might organize a match of bridge players if we ever meet in a tournament :-)

Then American Football, I'm a huuuuge Packers fan, probably the most southern Packer fan in the world (disputed with some Aussies).
Go Pack!

Table Tennis is fun to play.

Tennis is fun, we have a local variation here called "Paddle" don't know if you know that in your contries but it's fun too and I like to play it.
Last year in a tournament I tried a 10 hour bus ride during night without sleeping got to the hotel and then 2 hours of Paddle with 97F at noon.
Then a big lunch and guess how I played in the first section at night? :-)
Don't try that at home

[Trumpace]

Deanrover, on Mar 10 2006, 10:34 AM, said:

I am utterly astonished at the love for cricket displayed in this thread.

I am surprised to hear that.

Cricket rules!

[sceptic]

I forgot to mention Beach Volleyball is as good a spectator sport

[Deanrover]

Trumpace, on Mar 10 2006, 04:21 PM, said:

Deanrover, on Mar 10 2006, 10:34 AM, said:

I am utterly astonished at the love for cricket displayed in this thread.

I am surprised to hear that.

Cricket rules!

Sure, but I didn't think it was that popular outside the Commonwealth!

[keylime]

World Rally Car
American Le Mans and Grand-Am Rolex endurance racing
Cricket (so much better than slow a** baseball)
Rugby
Golf (ladies' tour first, then the men's)

[nickf]

keylime, on Mar 11 2006, 02:55 PM, said:

Cricket (so much better than slow a** baseball)

Baseball slow? Compared with cricket? muchos rofl.

I think it was an american who once described cricket as baseball on valium.

That said, there's a lot to be loved of a game that can be played for 5 days, each of 6-7 hours and then finish without a winner.

nickf
sydney

[Walddk]

nickf, on Mar 11 2006, 09:19 AM, said:

keylime, on Mar 11 2006, 02:55 PM, said:

Cricket (so much better than slow a** baseball)

Baseball slow? Compared with cricket? muchos rofl.

I think it was an american who once described cricket as baseball on valium.

That said, there's a lot to be loved of a game that can be played for 5 days, each of 6-7 hours and then finish without a winner.

nickf
sydney

While this is true for Test cricket, Nick forgets to tell this:

1. When the last ball is bowled, you can (in theory) get 4 different results! Team A wins, team B wins, a tie, a draw.

2. One Day Internationals (50 overs a side) are very popular and strangely enough finish inside one day.

3. 20/20 (20 overs a side) is cricket's answer to bridge's speedball. Very spectator friendly.

I suspect that Nick actually loves cricket, just like I do, although this is not all that clear by reading his post. He is probably still depressed after England took The Ashes back against Australia last summer

Roland

[kgr]

This one was not yet mentioned...
To watch:
- Field Bicycling (This is a literal translation from the Dutch "veldrijden". Not sure if it is called like this in English).
This is a sport that is very popular in Belgium during the Winter (September till Febr). You could best compare it to Mountainbike, but it only takes 1 hour and it is done on a closed circuit. This makes it more interesting to show it on television. Cameras all on the complete track, so they can show everything that happens (every cycler that falls,...).
...But it appears that it is only done in Blegium (and a bit in the Netherlands).

[Walddk]

kgr, on Mar 11 2006, 11:46 AM, said:

...But it appears that it is only done in Blegium (and a bit in the Netherlands).

Not quite right. You also find cross country bike riding in most other European countries. I know that this is true for at least Scandinavia, Germany, Italy and Spain. I agree with you, by the way; it's very entertaining.

Roland

[nickf]

Walddk, on Mar 11 2006, 08:25 PM, said:

I suspect that Nick actually loves cricket

i was weaned on cricket. but what i really love about it that australia is to cricket what the squadra azzura were to bridge.

and i like all forms, regular and pyjama cricket.

nickf
sydney

[Aberlour10]

Walddk, on Mar 11 2006, 06:04 AM, said:

kgr, on Mar 11 2006, 11:46 AM, said:

...But it appears that it is only done in Blegium (and a bit in the Netherlands).

Not quite right. You also find cross country bike riding in most other European countries. I know that this is true for at least Scandinavia, Germany, Italy and Spain. I agree with you, by the way; it's very entertaining.

Roland

yes indeed!

One road bicycle race is for me very entertaining too.
Every spring I spend a sunday afternoon in front of my
TV screen watching the classic race Paris- Roubaix, that
takes place on the historical route including 60-70 km
on very rough cobblestones. That makes this competition
to "Hell of the North"!

Robert

[junyi_zhu]

Jlall, on Mar 10 2006, 03:30 PM, said:

To play:

1) Soccer
2) Baseball
3) Basketball
4) Table Tennis
5) Tennis

To watch:

1) CRICKET!!! I rarely get to watch it anymore, but I used to live, sweat, and bleed cricket. On my recent trip to India I spent a lot of my time watching cricket rofl. Also in Australia. What a great game.
2) Baseball.

wow, glad to know that you also like table tennis!

[Rain]

Table tennis for watching.

Bridge and Table Tennis for playing.

I can't stand slow games like football. I need them to score score score. TT is fast and action packed.

[Limey_p]

Quote

pyjama cricket

I had to google it because I didn't know the term. It *does* seem to be a now-legitimate term refering to one-day matches. And there was me thinking it had something to do with other games played with or without pyjamas.

[nickf]

Limey_p, on Mar 13 2006, 06:18 AM, said:

Quote

pyjama cricket

I had to google it because I didn't know the term. It *does* seem to be a now-legitimate term refering to one-day matches.

It's been legitimate since about January 1978, at least among those of up on the hill.

nickf
sydney

[Walddk]

For those of you are totally confused by the term "pyjama cricket", maybe this explanation is in order:

In Test cricket (5-day matches) all players wear white clothing. In one day matches, however, the jerseys and trousers are multicoloured (to say the least). I guess you may have a point if you call it pyjama cricket although I don't have an outfit with South Africa or Sri Lanka written all over it

By the way, the best one day international ever (in my view) was played earlier today in Johannesburg. The Aussies made history by scoring 434 runs off the allotted 50 overs (no team had scored 400 before), but that record was broken a few hours later when the Springboks passed that score with one ball to spare!

Howzat!

Roland

[jchiu]

Walddk, on Mar 10 2006, 04:49 AM, said:

Cricket as explained to a foreigner:
You have two sides, one out in the field and one in. Each man
that's in the side that's in goes out, and when he's out he comes
in and the next man goes in until he's out. When they are all out,
the side that's out comes in and the side thats been in goes out
and tries to get those coming in, out.

Sometimes you get men still in and not out. That happens when
the captain of the batting side decides to declare the innings.

When a man goes out to go in, the men who are out try to get
him out, and when he is out he goes in and the next man in
goes out and goes in.

There are two men called umpires who stay all out all the time
and they decide when the men who are in are out. When both
sides have been in and all the men have been out, and both
sides have been out twice after all the men have been in,
including those who are not out, that is the end of the game!

Howzat!

Roland

Absolutely lucid, Roland. Except for one question, which is
what the heck is the "batting side"? Also seems obvious to
diagram (remember those petty diagramming exercises in
middle school?).


Back to the topic, though, I like to play

1. [Should be obvious]
2. Baseball
----------------------
3. Football
4. Table Tennis
5. Basketball

and like to watch

1. Baseball
2. Vugraph
3. Softball
...
M. Basketball
...
N. Football
...
ZZZ. Golf