Not a great deal going on in the world of cricket today. There are three Friends Life t20 matches, including the above match, which is being contested at the Headingly Cricket Ground in Headingly, a suburb of Leeds.
The ground was established in 1890, seats 17,000, has hosted the Ashes, regularly hosts international contests, and is the home ground for Yorkshire County Cricket club.
Again, like all grounds in England, it is quite the pictraeseque setting:
Now, I freely admit that I know nothing about the surrounding area, but hey it does look like a nice place to take in some cricket.
Cycling enthusiasts will tell you that road cycling features the most beautiful “stadiums” on the planet – you know, like the Alps and the Pyrenees. Golf fans will tell you the same thing about their courses. But I refute both claims, because neither is technically a stadium. I think it might go for English Cricket Grounds. They have wonderful old stands that are low enough for people to see the surrounding landscape, they feature a great deal of green space, and the blue summer sky (when it is blue) is always vast and expansive above the heads of the fans and the players.
Oh, and it seems Headingly has a new pavilion.
As mentioned, not much else going on. India via the D/L method beat the West Indies to take a 2-0 lead in the series, with the third ODI taking place on Saturday; Sussex, thanks to Luke Wright (puns abound!) thrashed Essex to move to 3-0 in the FLt20; Michael Vaughn pissed off a bunch of Arsenal supporters on Twitter; Sanath Jayasuriya has been recalled by Sri Lanka for one last hurrah; and the Shahid Afridi drama continues to bore the life out of me.
And finally: Cricinfo’s ball by ball coverage just never ceases to thrill with simply great cricket writing. Beauties abounded yesterday, such as this Hemingway-esque between over segue that I mentioned over on twitter:
“Pollard is the new batsman. West Indies have taken the batting Powerplay. It’s drizzling.”
Just simply lovely writing.
I think I love cricket mostly because of the writing and the photographs it inspires.
Now I am just looking forward to following some county cricket later today…
Until tomorrow…
Limited Overs 