I Don’t Like Cricket…I Love It

Yes, you read that right. I am a die-hard cricket fan.

For those of you from North America out there, I can see the puzzled looks on your faces.

For those of you from Australia and India, I know you are nodding sagely because you know that anyone from the West Indies is most likely a cricket lover. And even if they don’t love cricket, they follow the West Indies team and have an extra bounce in their step when they win.

I have a reason for bringing this up, and no, it’s not to clue my blog friends into just how uncool I am (because you probably figured that our already). I bring it up because right now, my mind is pretty much focused on cricket 95% of the time, and I’m fairly sure it will affect my blog posting, at least until Sunday.

That’s because the ICC World T20 tournament is winding up to the finals this weekend, and my team, the West Indies, has two semi-finals tomorrow. The women play the second best female team in the world, Australia, early tomorrow morning, and after that the men play the second place team from the last tournament, Sri Lanka.

West Indies is one of the most beloved teams in the world of cricket, and once upon a time, for a very long time, we were the undisputed best team that ever walked the earth. But now we are trying to rebuild our lost legacy, and the newest cricket format–called 20/20 or T20–is giving us a chance to do just that. Eighteen months ago, we won our first World title in a long while in this very competition. There were doubters then and now, so it is very gratifying that we have once again made it to the semis, and more gratifying that once again,  both the men and the women have qualified.

However, these matches will be very difficult, and if we win, I will be on tenterhooks until Sunday, so don’t be surprised if I don’t post much after this.

If we lose, I will be crying into my beer, and be completely unable to post due to my soul-crushing sorrow.

So do me a favour. Whether you’ve ever really heard of cricket before this or not, feel free to say a little prayer for my teams tomorrow. Every little bit helps, after all.

And as a little thank you, enjoy the sounds of 10cc and one of the most popular cricket songs ever written below. If you’re from the Commonwealth, you know it already, so just sing along with me:

I don’t like cricket…ah, oh no. I love it!