Posted by Three of the least cricket people you could ever imagine. One guy had been explaining how he could never move abroad because he’d just bought a 50 inch plasma TV.
Here are some sample quotes.
“It’s like the World Cup, but the Ashes is only ever played between England and Australia. It lasts for weeks and weeks and it’s all one thing. This last one that’s just finished – with England beating them down there after God knows how many years – it was ab-so-lute-ly mag-NIFicent.”
“You know me, I’m not into sport, but this Ashes was just magic.”
“The one-day stuff that’s happening now is good, but with all the different types of bowlers and the field changes and that, an Ashes series is something else.”
Bet these guys have never taken part in market research carried out on behalf of the England and Wales Cricket Board.
Casual cricket fans giving the impression that it’s the nuances of cricket that are the real draw? Don’t they want ‘maximums’ greeted by upbeat pop music (the sporting equivalent of sitcom canned laughter)?
Are they SURE they don’t want that?
to anyone who has not seen it already
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6Uod8Vf9Ps
Even a tribute to collingwood in there.
Amazing I say.
Was the first commenter Ian ‘Beefy’ Botham?
It wouldn’t be a huge surprise at all to see David Lloyd in our local, but Beefy is unlikely to grace it with his bombastic presence.
“different types of bowlers”
twats
Harsh. We liked them.
This guy may not have been a massive cricket fan, but he was genuinely enthusiastic and didn’t judge the sport in football terms, which is what a lot of people tend to do by default.
The moral of the story, as ever, is that people enjoy a sport more when their team is winning.
Me too.
Well, yes and no. This guy seemed to have a lot of enthusiasm for the Ashes generally and was particularly keen on it this year, for obvious reasons.
If anything, the moral is that cricket is more popular when it is perceived to be ‘an event’. He put the Ashes on a par with the football World Cup in that sense.
I do love a good field change.
The second comment doesn’t make sense, psychologically. Anyone who is not into sport would probably calling a sporting event that held his attention “pretty good” or “interesting”. But “magic”?
That’s what he said. Maybe he was overstating the ‘not into sport’. Clearly he is into sport at least once every other year (the Ashes) and from the way he was talking, he followed major events like the football World Cup and we’d guess Wimbledon, the rugby World Cup, major golf tournaments and stuff like that.
If anything, he WAS a sports fan, as opposed to a person who simply loves the aggressive tribalism of following a football club, say.
I know loads of who say that they are not really into sport but that they do follow… World Cups, Wimbledon, Ashes, Big Tournaments…
I’d draw a diagram to illustrate this point, but I am under orders to reign in my enthusiasm for Venn Diagrams.
Daisy says that I have had a very bad case of VD this winter and also that I am becoming a bit of a sets maniac. I find it hard to disagree.
I for one would challenge Ged to come up with a visual representation of the direct sums of orthogonal sets, while still making it relevant to this discussion.
(Why yes I do have a complex analysis exam coming up)
How close did you have to get to them to overhear this much detail? Were you writing it down on a series of beermats? Did they notice?
They were sat immediately behind us.
We actually forgot most of what they were saying, particularly the best bits.
Always happy to help a student, Howe Zat:
http://v4admin.sportnetwork.net/upload/66/66_0_1295550540.jpg
Which reminds me – R U Vettori in disguise?