Sooner or later, I knew it would come to this. I knew that someday there would be a test match that I was highly interested in, was available for legal viewing online, and was on in the middle of the night.
And that day…err…night…has finally come.
The second day of Pakistan versus England starts in one hour and 40 minutes. It is 20 minutes after 10 o’clock here in the Midwest, I have to be at the office at eight am. In other words: the match is happening during the exact same eight hour window when I am usually sleeping.
And, yet, here I am, typing away on a blog post, drinking tea, biding my time, fully committed to making it at least to the lunch break.
This is the life of American cricket fan.
Nah, that’s inappropriately arrogant.
England fans suffer through a similar loopy schedule when England visiting Australia, just as one example. Lunchtime in Melbourne is 2am in London.
Cricket fans everywhere suffer for their sport, sacrificing sleep like no other group of sports fans.
Maybe that’s why Stuart Robertson invented Twenty20? He was sick of not getting eight hours a night.
I had debated maybe going to bed extremely early and then getting up extremely early (like, say, 4am-ish), but I decided instead to take a quick power nap after getting home from work and then fortify myself with caffeine and a James Ellroy novel to pass the time.
I will probably try the early riser option next test – although I have found that it is always easier to stay up late then to get up early.
Honestly, I think if the match had taken a different turn yesterday, I might have decided just to see what the scores were when I got up in the morning; I really don’t need to see Jonathon Trott scratching away for session after session…again…
But the match is wonderfully poised. England need wickets today – and that need should make for entertaining viewing.
And, really, I am excited to finally suffer for my sport.
Getting up at 6:15am to watch Arsenal play is gong to feel easy after this.
Hopefully, Twitter is alive and kicking with Brits up early for the match, and hopefully Willow TV will still be showing the game – nothing but love for Cricinfo’s ball-by-ball, but I am not going to sacrifice quality sack time unless I have a proper video stream.
All right, one hour and twenty minutes to go, time to make a sandwich.
Until next time.
Limited Overs 