FilmWriting Project: British Underdog Movie about Cricket

All I can say is;
England 599-6 and 209-7
Bangladesh 296 all out and 191-5 with one day remaining.

Having just checked in at cricinfo.com before coming here, I second Adrian's comment.

"one of the world's most boring and inane sports"

That's sort of what some people say about parrots, or evolutionary biology, isn't it?

"That's sort of what some people say about parrots, or evolutionary biology, isn't it?"

harrumph. the only people who actually say such scandalous things and live to see the next day are those who have an ocean between them and my evil rampaging flock of deadly beaks.

Grrl will have to be gently weaned onto cricket. I think a couple of ODIs on TMS will get her into it.

Grrl, run now, while you still can. Whatever you do, do not watch the Boxing Day test...

I think a couple of ODIs on TMS will get her into it.

You could be right. My own wife, another American (I think their problem is they don't have any decent sports of their own), shares Grrl's view of cricket but happily listens to the TMS crew -- and even tries to track down the Beeb's occasional podcasts of ancient Jonners broadcasts.

Grrl will have to be gently weaned onto cricket. I think a couple of ODIs on TMS will get her into it.

Or you could try some of the Guardian OBO coverage- just enough cricket interspersed between the chatter to get you hooked and interested in the actual game.

ummm Adrian, Bangladesh, right? LOL! Nice knocks from Cook and Collingwood (and KP,) and bowling from Swanee in the first inning, but the match should have been over already...

I agree, David. Which fool thought we had to have 6 batsmen and only 1 spinner? We should have taken Rashid, if only for the experience.

You forgot to add baseball to the list. It may be slightly less boring than cricket, golf, or watching paint dry, but not by much. As a torture device, I'd crack under baseball long before they would need to subject me to the others.

yes, i agree. baseball is horribly boring, too. however, baseball has provided me with several very exciting moments: declaring your enduring hatred for baseball and asserting that the yankees SUCK while drinking beer in a NYC pub is a great way to increase the overall excitement in one's life.

@4

Grrl will have to be gently weaned onto cricket. I think a couple of ODIs on TMS will get her into it.

I think you may be right. My own wife, another American (I think it must be the fact that they don't have any decent sports of their own), shares Grrl's attitude toward cricket but listens happily to the TMS crew and is a huge of fan of that old Beeb programme (it's on their site somewhere, apparently) "An Hour with Jonners".

Major sports boredom, from least boring to most:
1) Ice Hockey
2) Football (*REAL* football, where mainly feet are used to move the ball)
3) Cricket
4) Baseball
5) Real motor sports (NO OVAL TRACKS)
5) Pub Darts, Pool or Dominoes (with drink penalties)
6) Curling
7) XTreme Chess
.
.
?) Lawn bowls
?+1) Croquet
.
.
nty) Professional Lawn Care.
nty-one) Wall painting
nty-two) Tennis
nty-three) American Rules Rugby Football (3 hours to play a 60 minute game...come on, get real)

Despite Grrl's apparent antipathy, she was happy to help me with catching practice with some kiwis this evening.

re MartinDH,

At the bottom of that list I'd like to add any motorsport with "Fun" in the title. Generally means 4 hours of VW Beetles driving round. No idea who was winning and they didn't even have the decency to crash at our gravel trap. 20 minutes of Ferrari's the same day and we had two cars in it.

Just one final thing, England WIN by 181 and Swann takes 10 wickets in the match.

and the headlines in the Times, Guardian, and Independent all used the word "belaboured"...!

@David hilmy

Are you sure they said anything of the sort? I've just checked the Indy and the Grauniad online, and they don't use the term "belaboured" . . . which is hardly surprising, bearing in mind the meaning of the word.

They don't seem to have used the more plausible term "laboured", either.

I haven't checked Murdoch's rag, because I want to keep my breakfast down.

JG, perhaps a bit of poetic license there! (based upon the BBC Sport "England labour to Chittagong win" and Guardian's "England toil to victory in First Test!

Who are you to decide cricket is boring and inane. You obviously don't have the intellect to grasp its idiosyncrasies.

Actually your blogs pretty boring and certainly very inane.

Good grief! We have a cricket troll! I never knew such entities existed.

ummm, I hope you mean Jesse!

By the way, I do tend to play with words, so what was implied by "belabour" was intended- not only the relative obsolete term for "labour" (which they certainly had to do by not bring five bowlers) but also the usage implying criticim- after all, with Beckham out and the Calcutta Cup retained, the media have to blame something English...

Good grief! We have a cricket troll! I never knew such entities existed.

It's called sledging, isn't it?

@David

ummm, I hope you mean Jesse!

I do indeed. Just because Grrl has yet to discover that cricket is more important than sex, death and taxes, and more fun than at least two of these, is no excuse for his discourtesy.

Ha ha ha! England cricket is off the hook now that Chelsea has crashed out of the Champions League! LOL!