I've been away for a wee bit (blame Webstock), so let met fill you in on what happened in sport during that time: nothing nothing nothing nothing nothing The Black Caps beat India in the 20/20 nothing nothing.
Sure the NBA keep going and the European football leagues played and the Super 14 plodded through another dull early-season yawn-fest. But nothing actually happened.
Ian O'Brien was suitably upbeat about the victory down south:
From the notes we had gathered on these batters I had made some shorter notes that I had on a piece of paper in my pocket. I referred to these quite a few times while we were out there, in time I'll have them in memory, until then, I don't mind having to refer to my notes so that I am not getting the plan wrong. A quick little school up on them both and I'm into it. I felt pretty good, I did notice myself running in too hard for the first ball and pulled it back before I got to the crease, relaxed into it and got off to a nice start. I finished the over in the best way possible, a smile on my face, a leap and punch in the air, a whole heap of high fives and middle stump lying flat on the ground; now that is a great feeling!
So while both captains are saying that the Christchurch game means nothing in terms of confidence, you just know New Zealand are feeling on a bit of a high while India will be plotting deadly big-hitting revenge.
James over at Editing the Herald noticed that the recent Oscars had meant an increase in terrible puns relating to the cricket:
- slumdog millionaires
- fun-slog millionaires
- run-clog millionaires
- slumdog billionaires
- hotdog-bun millionaires
Meanwhile the ads for the Indian series look familiar. Very clever, I wonder if anyone else has thought of spoofing iPod ads?
Also I don't really see cricket as a Rock n Roll kind of sport. I like the idea of the players doing something rock-starish when they've just scored a six or got a wicket or something, but if cricket was music it'd be …country?
I'm going to be at the game tonight so if you see me say hello and whatever other expletives you feel is necessary. I look like this (in the grey t-shirt). I'll put up my summary tomorrow sometime (or follow the #thecricket tag on Twitter).
Also for those who love British comedy the latest episode (20/2/09) of the Friday Night News Quiz (on BBC radio podcast) has a very funny section on cricket (about 5 minutes in). It includes a story where Geoffrey Boycott walks up a young boy he has never met and asks: "So do you bat or do you bowl?"
But I tell you what; those bloody Breakers have been doing well. I know they are one game away from dropping out of the play-offs but you could also say they are two games away from playing in the finals. So, even if they lose the best-of-three series to the Tigers, bloody good on them for doing so well.
Meanwhile in the high-stakes world of money, fast cars, fast women and drugs that is first class English football rugby, prop Matt Stevens has been banned for two years for testing positive to cocaine. He was pulled from both the English and Bath rugby teams as soon as the positive test was revealed. Still it must've been totally worth it, right? Congratulations England, you've now got your own Wendell Sailor.
Finally, from Richard Irvine's Links on a Friday comes the greatest sports commentator ever.