A lot has been written on the subject of cricket, most of it denoting the genteel aspects of what esentially is quite and absurd game. There are 46 laws which and to change them requires a meeting of the Privy Council of the Lords (the highest court of the land in the UK), so this means that collectively they are even more secure than your average piece of legislation. Even the name Lords conjures up visions of viscounts and esquires who owned vast tracts of land, when in actual fact it's named after Thomas Lord who owned the bit of dirt in the first place. Cricket is a highly principled game which relies on the most polite and wonderful qualities expressed in gentlemen and the code of chivalry (despite there being no ladies in the MCC until 1996)
Let's make mention of the incredibly stupid names of the various fielding positions. On the football field a Left Midfielder is obviously on the left in the middle of the park but in cricket, the mind boggles as to the reasons that a "Silly" (read utterly stupid for standing there) or a "Third Man" should exist. Most of the positional names bear no relation as to their actual location on the park, which of course is another delightfully idiotic aspect of the game.
But the most ironic thing about the game is the concept of the "Test Match". A Test Match is 5 days long and is more a test of the spectators than the players. It is actually a test:
- to park your car for five days
- not to get sunburnt
- to remain interested
- and to stay awake
- to get the time off work
...meanwhile the players themselves get to spend their time in air-conditioned luxury. Another stupid thing about the game of cricket is that you can play for 5 days and still not get a result.
It was also said that if Hitler had sucessfully invaded Britain that he would not have got into the Long Room at Lords... because he wasn't a member.
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