Hi all.

Back from vacation, rested and spoiling for a fight :-)

I've had several N. Americans say to me "Cricket - what's THAT all about?". I used to think it was a slow and dull game, and that baseball must be far more exciting. Until years later I saw the W. Indies tour in England and that got me more interested. Now it's the Test Match aginst the Aussies and I'm thoroughly enjoying it. They have baseball on the telly here and I watched it for a while last night.

DULL AS DISH-WATER!

They were playing for about half an hour before anyone scored!
Most the time the batter just stands there while the pitcher throws the ball at him, and does nothing.
What's all this back-stop showing fingers and the pitcher doing a histrionic nod all about?
I thought it was three pitches, 3 strikes and out but there seems to be lots more, disallowed for some arcane technicality or other.
When he does eventually react, nothing happens anyway.
If the ball does go in the air, the legal zone for hitting it in is so small (whereas in Cricket it's the full 360 deg)that the fielders can't help but catch it (unless it goes into the crowd for a home run), especially as he's wearing a Toonland giant glove.
In short, it's a load pf standing about doing nothing, with rare short bouts of intense action where the men try to batter each other at the bases.
The commentators just can't keep their prattling mouths shut for 2 seconds.
What's worse, there's a huge gormless Englishman, with a weird accent who pretends he's interested in this dark game and talks to the British audience (during the many US commercial breaks), with the help of a US expert.