Coming around on the cricket

It was inevitable to some degree, I guess, and it's happening. Albeit very slowly.

On Saturday morning, I got my first real taste of playing cricket when some friends and I went to a net session, which is basically cricket's version of batting cages. However, instead of having a machine pitch to you, we bowled (aka, pitched) to each other. And it was fun. I sucked for the most part, yes, but I had a pretty good time. And now I have a nice sunburn and an incredibly sore back to show for it.

After the net session, we went back to some friends' place and watched the current cricket test match between Australia and Sri Lanka. This was one of those five-day matches that tests your patience as a human being. But alcohol, the solution to (and cause of) most of the world's problems, was quickly introduced and it turned into a grand ol' time. Yes, our attention quite often wavered from the cricket, but from what I've been gathering, that's part of the experience. In fact, a coworker described a quintessential Australian childhood experience to me as having your Dad parked in front of the TV for an entire weekend, lazily watching the cricket and going in and out of consciousness as he struggled to stay awake. For no one is actually expected to hang on every single ball of the match; that would just be lunacy. Instead, you just let the cricket exist in the background, drink yourself silly, and if something actually happens in the match (this might occur three or four times an hour), you glance over, comment about the play, and get back to your drinking.

Now that's something I can get used to. And I think I will.