Some Cricket Facts

Here are 10 things I learned about Cricket last Friday.
Please note: The additional info is based on my own knowledge and the opinions that are stated are my own and does not indicate anything else but my thoughts:

1. It happens once in 4 years: Cricket World Championship. The first one was at 1975, in England. By the way, it was The West Indies who took the championship. They also won the following Championship. But it stopped there.

2. This year it take place in Guyana, South America. I am almost certain Guyana was once a colony. Next to Guyana lies Suriname, An Ex-Colony of the Netherlands. At first Suriname was a British colony and New York was a Dutch colony. There were loads of gold in Suriname, the Dutch knew it but the British didn't. That's why the Netherlands offered Britain a swap, and they agreed.

3. Many Ex-Colonies are participating at the Cricket World Championship: India, Pakistan, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Kenya, Zimbabwe, The West Indies (Barbados, Jamaica, Trinidad etc.) Australia, New Zealand, Ireland. Some of the mentioned above suffered, were exploited and abused more than others.

4. England, the biggest imperialist country ever, have never won the championship, though getting into the final for 3 times. How ironic.

5. The referees are dressed like colonialists.

6. Surprisingly, Pakistan lost to Ireland at the first stage of the games, and is out of the competition. Less than 24 hours after their defeat, the Pakistan coach, Bob Woolmer, who's actually an Ex-English-Cricket Player, was found unconscious in his hotel room. It is suspected he was actually poisoned and was strangled, which caused his death. The case in being investigated by the Guyana or the Jamaican police (It was unclear by the article I read...).

7. The match I was watching at Dublin Airport was between Ireland and England. Unfortunately, England won.

8. About the game itself: In the Cricket World Championship, a match will last 1 whole day (8 hours in total). The Non-World Championship match will last few days!!!
It's pretty much like Baseball: there are a bat and a ball, but it shaped different than the baseball ones.
There are two teams that are playing against each other, of course. One team is at the field, while the other one is hitting the ball and tries to gain as many runs as possible.

9. For further information go to www.cricinfo.com or at their world cup website http://uk.cricinfo.com/worldcup2007

10. So for those of you who used to think like me that cricket is boring: Think Again!
I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.