This past Wednesday was a holiday in honor of the cricket match taking place in St. Lucia between the West Indies and Australia. A number of us splurged and got grass seats for $40EC. I learned a thing or two about cricket.

This match was a big deal because it’s part of a seven-match series. Also Australia is the best cricket team in the world. West Indies is not, unfortunately.

Here is cricket in a nutshell: There are about 11 members on each team, and at one time there are ten fielders from one team and two batsmen from the other team on the field. The two batsmen are about 20 feet apart, facing each other, and standing in front of a wicket, which is three small sticks with little things balanced on top. A bowler from the defensive team pitches, trying to knock over the wicket. The batsman’s ultimate goal is to stop the wicket from being hit, and secondly to score runs. Runs are scored when the batsman hits the ball hard enough, and the two batsmen will run and switch places. The number of times they do this is the number of runs. However, if the ball rolls outside a certain boundary, it is automatically 4 runs, and if it flies over the boundary it is six. There is no limit on how long a batsman can bat. But if the wicket is hit, a hit is caught on the fly, or the ball gets back to the wicket line while the batsman is running, he is out and a new batsman comes on. Each team bats for 50 overs in a row. An over is six bowls. After the 50 overs, the next team comes up to bat. The whole match takes about 8 hours. There is a different type of match that can take up to 5 days.

The score at the end of the match was Australia: 258 for 4 and St. Lucia 233 for 9. Australia leads the series 3-0. What the score means is that Australia scored 258 runs with 4 outs and St. Lucia scored 233 runs for 9 outs within their 50-over limit. One of the W. Indies guys scored 43 runs before getting out, which was really exciting.

There is more info at:

http://www.cwcricket.com and www.windiescricket.com

I went to the game with Margaret, her friend Rene, Mike, Lauren, Sam, Shan and Domitille. Mike, Margaret, Rene and I were there at SEVEN AM to get tickets. The news had incorrectly reported that tickets were sold out when they really weren’t. We had to be there at the crack of dawn to get what was left. But it was good because we got our pick of the grass seats and we had a nice breakfast. Deb landed herself a real seat, as did some of my work friends. Kenvin got into a skybox, so did John and Bota, and Wijay got into some special player’s box. But we were there with the common man in the grass. It was very similar to a tailgating or bleachers experience. Everyone had whistles and air horns, but what was funnier were the guys who blew on conch shells, some even painted Lucian colors. By 11 or so the grass was totally packed. As could be expected, a number of guys leered and drooled at Sam and me. They made the typical boyfriend/husband inquiries and sexual innuendo. What was both surprising and appalling was when Sam and I shuffled Mike between us and the leery guys, all leering stopped and they struck up a conversation with Mike totally normally. So much for gender equality!

Mike and I left at about 3:30. The sun was beginning to blaze and we had been there from seven. I took with me my souvenirs of a Lucian flag, a cheesy cardboard visor, and a card that you hold up when the players score; 4 on one side and 6 on the other. I collapsed at about 8pm and slept well for the first night in more than a week.