Sunday 21 August 2011

Cricket; less 'genteel' than baseball?

I’ve been reading an interesting book called The Baseball Codes  by Jason Turnbow 

It’s about the unwritten rules that professional baseball players use, and sometimes break; about what’s ‘done’ on the diamond and what’s ‘not done’.

And I’ve been avidly following the current test cricket series between England and India.

Both games are in essence, mirror images of each other; the summer sports of their respective nations, team games with individual battles between bat and ball, even a prevalence of white uniforms.

But what has struck me is that cricket, supposedly a gentlemanly afternoon, even rather effete, is much more ruthless a game.

This is not in anyway a suggestion that cricket is the better or harder game or that its players are tougher or more skilled.

What I’m trying to suggest is that in its very structure, and some aspects of its culture, cricket is a more brutally competitive game than its American cousin.

For example; the ‘10 run rule’ in Baseball.  When one team is well ahead in the Major Leagues, it is thought ungentlemanly for it to play too aggressively; it shouldn’t let up exactly, it just shouldn’t play as hard as it would if the score was close; not stealing bases is one instance of this.

The structure of cricket doesn’t allow this sort of relaxation. Because a match is time-bounded, a team behind, even hugely behind, can simply bat out the time to make a draw.  Because  it must take 20 wickets to win, a batting side, if it is on top, ought to make as many runs as possible.

Hence this summer, England have posted scores like 710, 591 and 544, huge totals, which have undeniably humiliated the Indian bowlers and fielders.

But there would be not a peep about overdoing it because the structure of the game necessaitates such ruthlessness.

Similarly, baseball pitchers have as much chance to intimidate or injure batters as their counterparts in cricket.

But hitting a batter at the plate is severely frowned upon, and can get a pitcher ejected.  It will also likely draw a retaliation from the pitchers on the struck batter’s team.

Now any cricket fan will have heard of the fuss of the 'Bodyline' tour. But in the recent England-India series, an Indian batsman, thought to be poor against the short-pitched ball was struck a painful blow on the hand. He then faced a thorough working over from the England bowlers, and was hit a couple of more times until he was caught fending off a bouncer.

Commentators thoroughly approved of the tactics.

Again, this is not to suggest the baseball players are soft; they have much less padding than cricketers and that hard ball can come at head height tremendously quickly

But I think it interesting that while cricket is a byword for gentility (it’s not cricket old boy, play up and play the game, etc) its structure, mainly the fact that an inferior team can salvage a draw, means a winning side must be ruthless in enforcing a victory. And baseball, which will always end in a result, can allow a certain amount of clemency to losing players.

It is telling that it isbaseball which has the phrase, ‘mercy rule’ while cricket teams long to ‘put their foot on the throat’ of their opponents.

Tuesday 16 August 2011

Guardian Bike Blog: My Cycling Clutter is Weighing Me Down

Here's a Guardian Bike blog post I wrote on the junk I'm carrying around on my bike

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/bike-blog/2011/aug/16/cycling-clutter

Some Background

This is a place for anyone who cares to see some of the stuff I've written, and writing, will (maybe, if I can get round to it..) write

There'll be a lot of politics, some sport, a bit of food and a smidge of everything else.

To start, Here's some links to stuff I've done for a politics magazine deAlign.co.uk

http://www.dealign.co.uk/art/090811/riotreaction.html

http://www.dealign.co.uk/art/090811/democracy.html

http://www.dealign.co.uk/art/090811/fulldisclosure.html

http://www.dealign.co.uk/art/020811/betrayalafghan.html

http://www.dealign.co.uk/art/260711/rebalance.html

http://www.dealign.co.uk/art/socialmedia.html

http://www.dealign.co.uk/art/feedingourhabit.html

http://www.dealign.co.uk/art/fatalflaw.html

http://www.dealign.co.uk/art/reputationreform.html

http://www.dealign.co.uk/art/ironyafghanistan.html

http://www.dealign.co.uk/art/stillsexingup.html

http://www.dealign.co.uk/art/lordsreform.html