I picked the above match to title this post with because one of the bands my wife and I saw while we were in London in March (The Stanley Blacks, check them out) are from Guildford – and play often at the Boiler Room which, it seems, is only a few short blocks away from the Guildford Cricket Ground (aka Woodbridge Road), where the above match is taking place:
Also, funny enough, I have a good friend that used to work at a coffeeshop in Minneapolis called, of course, the Boiler Room.
And speaking of my trip to London, as I mentioned either in my first post or in the “About Me” section of this blog, I was able to visit Lord’s (briefly), and of course Lord’s is where the first test between India and England will take place – starting tomorrow at 05:00am CDT.
As I mentioned over on twitter, the Internet is truly starting to salivate over this series. Andrew Miller, however, says that it is a contest worthy of the hype – and I could not agree more. The two best test nations in the world; Summer in England; Lord’s; Tendulkar’s 100th hundred; Tendulkar (full stop); Anderson and Tremlett poised to become world beaters for England; Broad’s “redemption”; Bell, Morgen; Laxman, Dravid. Fletcher v Flowers. Strauss, Petersen, Singh. The list goes on and on. Being a novice, I will say nothing that has not been said a million times already.
I will say, unorginally, that I truly amped up over this series, and am even more excited that I will be able to watch it LIVE on willow dot tee…errr….YouTube…?
That’s right, 36 hours before the first ball of the first test of the biggest series at cricket’s most hallowed ground…Willow TV makes a monumental change in the manner in which it presents live cricket.
All live matches will now be shown on their YouTube channel, instead of the player on their own site.
Now, I get while the change was made. YouTube means more access, more viewers, more money. Which hopefully means a better service for users like myself. But to change so close to such a big match, and to do it straight out of left field deep mid wicket just seemed so haphazard.
Plus, the e-mail announcement I received supposedly linked to “instructions” on how to “seamlessly” move my viewing from willow.tv to their YouTube channel. Unfortunately, that was not the case.
After spending 20 minutes hunting, I was able to figure out that I needed to link my willow.tv subscription up with my YouTube profile. Which I did…and ZING….!! live cricket. Phew.
The big “test” (haha) will come tomorrow morning.
And since I am a Minnesotan, let’s talk about the weather in London for a second: There is a 20% chance of showers for Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Sunday looks perfect, but there is a 40% chance for Monday. Which means, England, get the job done early, boys. Just like in Adelaide. And Perth. And Sydney.
That’s right, despite my supreme affection for the Indian players, I am supporting England this summer.
Until tomorrow. See you at Lord’s.
Limited Overs 