Watching Cricket

Experience of watching a cricket match is very different from that of watching any other game. In other games the excitement is constant as the players constantly strike the ball and thus the watcher too shares the excitement. In cricket the excitement is watching and waiting for something to happen. When that happens once in a while say once in a hour or sometimes once in a day when there are two set batsmen t who refuse to get out, the audience is left to fend for themselves. That is the secret of watching a cricket match. How one does it. Different nations do it differently and the ones I like most are the West Indians. For them it is fun time. Let the cricketers do what they want in the centre here we will have fun is their motto. As dance and music comes natural to them this is what they do and to see them swaying to music with a drink in their hand with happy grins on their faces is indeed a pleasure. Next best are the British. For them the waiting is in itself fun. I watched with fascination two women sitting with a contraption in front which held a bottle of Champagne and two glasses, oblivious to the others around. No jumping up and down or screaming for them. When a good shot is played the best they do is to mildly clap, that is, if the hands are free.

The worst, you have guessed right, are the Indians. They suffer the game. When their team is batting every run scored is cheered and when a four is hit they fall over with excitement. When the opposite side does well and scores there is deathly silence. Only an Indian can score well and play cricket and the others are there to provide opposition.

Sri Lankans too enjoy their cricket and are parochial but not as bad as Indians
I have not said anything about Pakis. They are even worse than Indians