Summer Holidays 2010 5: This Sporting Life

They say that to truly understand British culture and the British way of life you should be able to understand everything there is to know about cricket. Well, bummer! That means I don’t understand anything about the British at all! I’ve heard about a wicket, stumps and ashes and I believe sometimes someone calls out: “Howzat!”, and I’ve seen people playing cricket on Saturday afternoons, usually on lovely summer’s days when the sound of the ball on the bat can be heard miles away and the only other sounds are those made by bees flying from flower to flower in the eco-friendly borders of the cricket field, but that’s where it ends. I have no idea what they’re doing, only that it takes a long time.

It’s always men playing it seems. I’ve never heard of an all-women cricket team, but that doesn’t mean a thing because as I said, I don’t know anything about the game at all. So I decided to do some research, because in my job you really need to understand the British way of life, and of course I found out all about it on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cricket . Still don’t understand much of it unfortunately. Maybe the reason is that my mind started wandering about halfway through the article.

The game sounds simple enough, just like any other ballgame really, but why are the British so fascinated by the game? Or by any other game come to think of it?

It’s probably me. I have a big problem understanding any game involving a bunch of men (with or without bats or rackets) running about after balls that have to be caught or kicked into goals, hurting or maiming as many opponents as they can in the process and trying to look at death’s door when an opponent treats them in the same way.

It seems the British are obsessed with sports and I am not.

Does this mean that I will never understand British culture? Maybe, but it may just mean that I won’t be able to understand the particular part of British culture that involves sports. Do I really care? Actually, no. Actually, I’m really proud of the fact that I don’t understand anything about sports and why most people are so obsessed by it.

There. I’ve said it. So shoot me.