I’m not going to even pretend I can play cricket. I really can’t. I think I’ve probably played it twice and I was terrible. The only time I remember playing at school was during a PE class. I was fielding and someone hit a ball high in the air. Where I was standing, I was perfectly positioned to catch it. I watched it all the way and readied myself as it came down. I completely bottled it. I jumped out of the way and watched it thud on the ground. The PE teacher went nuts, quite rightly.
My Grandma played cricket and loved watching the test matches on TV. When my brother and I were over there when she was looking after us whilst my mum was at work, we would quite often have the cricket on in the background. My brother got quite in to it, and is still a fan but I had limited interest.
I’ve been to see two live matches. The first was England v Sri Lanka at Edgbaston. I went with my mates from school (Rob, Meadie, Rosie, Nige and Jace) with the sole intention of having a fun day out. We decided to dress up as grannies. I’m not entirely sure why, but it made the day more memorable. We met up at my mate Rob’s house who lived fairly close to the ground. The day started off with some dodgy cocktail drinks and descended from there. We took a stack of cans to the ground but had to neck a few each before going in as we weren’t allowed to take them in. This was a bad start. I’m not the best drinker anyway but drinking at 10 o’clock in the morning was a recipe for disaster.
It was a really sunny day, so it was perfect for sitting in the stands. We took it in turns to go to the bar and steadily drank all day. The cricket was very much secondary to the day. To be honest I can’t remember much about the game and have no idea what the result was. A couple of the lads fell asleep later on in the afternoon. This was like a red rag to a bull. We drew all over them with lipstick. Jace in particular got covered with writing and rude pictures. he wasn’t impressed when he woke up but it was pretty standard for any one of us that fell asleep. It was a good day out. On the way home Meadie and I had a handbag fight and were told to pack it in by a Police officer who was clearly unimpressed by our drunken antics. It must have looked ridiculous.
The second time was a similar day out but this time with my Uni mates, Simeon and Closet. We also went to Edgbaston, but this time to watch England v Pakistan in a one day international. We hadn’t seen each other for a while so rather predictably we made the most of it and got fairly drunk. Each time any of us we went to the bar we got a different type of round in. I don’t know how much we drank but it was a fair amount. The atmosphere was great, and like the last match everyone that was there was in good spirits. We didn’t get dressed up this time but the were plenty of others that were. I also have no idea how that match ended either. At the end of the day we got on separate trains and headed back to our respective homes.
So, in summary, I have no interest in playing cricket as I’m no good at it, but watching it live is a great social activity. Just don’t expect to remember any of it.