Howzat?
For a while now, I knew where I would be spending Boxing Day. The Boxing Day cricket test match is a Durban tradition. You wake up early on a scorching hot Boxing Day, don your bikini and suncream, set your blanket up on the patch of grass at Castle Corner, and bake in the sun, drunk by 10am on smuggled ridealongs.Usually. But of course, this had to be the year it rained. And by rain, I mean mist. Seriously, mist held up the game for an hour. No wonder cricket isn’t popular in Vancouver.
(fun aside: when Julie texted me with the rain warning, I instinctually put on a bunch of layers, including a scarf and jacket. I get there and everyone is down to as little as possible. Because in Bizarro Durban, rain means heat. I never learn, do I?)
Anyway, my opinions on cricket.... after the jump!
(fun aside: when Julie texted me with the rain warning, I instinctually put on a bunch of layers, including a scarf and jacket. I get there and everyone is down to as little as possible. Because in Bizarro Durban, rain means heat. I never learn, do I?)
Anyway, my opinions on cricket.... after the jump!
So the cricket finally began and it turns out I like cricket. Although not for the reasons one would expect. I think it’s quite the ridiculous game with its funny made-up rules. Which is exactly why it appeals to me. Me, I see the inventor of Cricket having been a bossy 11-year kid at a boring Sunday School picnic (hence the nice white clothes).
“No, only Johnny and I get to play for right now. Why? Because those are the rules, Ernie. And we’ll get like, a million pitches. But you might get a turn later. (In, like, two days...)”
“The game ends when there are four shadows on the pitch. (Because mum said that’s when we know it’s time to go in for dinner.)”
Goofy. Though apparently not goofy enough - I was honestly disappointed when tea time came and I realized that butlers don’t bring tables out onto the pitch. (I guess I saw this in a movie once??)
Now, for some people, Boxing Day cricket looks like this:
For most people I saw that day, it looked more like this:
For most people I saw that day, it looked more like this:
I used to think watching baseball was a lazy person’s paradise - baseball’s got nothing on cricket. In cricket you can completely check out of watching the game for 45 minutes and it’s fine.
And Castle Corner was something else altogether. As Terez put it, “we really only come to watch each other." 
All in all, the following photo summarizes my first true cricket experience. (What I can remember of it.)
All in all, the following photo summarizes my first true cricket experience. (What I can remember of it.) 
Hey, everyone's got their traditions, I suppose! Happy Holidays!
posted by Aleksandra @ 5:50 AM
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