I found this article in the Financial Times, which is a British daily, their Wall Street Journal equivalent.  It’s an article about a new and horrifying phenomenon that’s infecting high-level Cricket matches across the island nation. I’ve copied the text for you, although I’m not sure that’s actually allowed or not, but I think it’s been cited properly. Here the link to the original article. I find it hilarious on so many levels – the funny words I don’t understand, the complete shock and incomprehension from the author that this could happen in a sporting event, the fear and anger,  just the basic and fundamental differences between Americans and Brits. Give it a read.

It’s Not Cricket

Published: August 6 2009 19:05 – Financial Times

The cricket authorities in England are awaiting the opening of Friday’s Test match with Australia with a mixture of anticipation and dread. Anticipation because the cricket this summer has been superb – and another England victory would clinch a rare triumph in an Ashes series against Australia. Dread because the English supporters have taken to ill-mannered booing of the Australian players, and this match will take place at Headingley, where the crowd is notoriously drunk and rowdy.

Cricket is a game that has always prided itself on its tradition of sportsmanship, captured in the very phrase – “It’s not cricket.” The chairman of the English cricket board has appealed to the crowd not to barrack Ricky Ponting, the Australian captain, when he walks to the wicket. But the chairman may be disappointed.

Now comes an unexpected twist to the story. Leading members of the Australian team have said that they do not mind the barracking from the crowd – some even claim to find it inspirational. Shane Watson, Australia’s opening batsman, has said that “It’s a great part of being here in England.”

Being insulted by a drunk Yorkshireman in a polyester replica shirt is not normally counted as one of the highlights of a visit to England. But if the Australian team do no object to the abuse, do the rest of us have any right to complain?

Actually – yes, we do. It can be a real pain to sit anywhere near the “Barmy Army”, the rabid England supporters who do most of the chanting. At their worst, they are drunk, foul-mouthed, mindlessly partisan and curiously uninterested in the cricket. If they are allowed to set the tone at matches, supporters who prefer to watch in a more civilised atmosphere will simply stop going.

To be fair, on good days the Barmy Army can be funny. When Mark Waugh, an Australian player, was caught up in a betting scandal a few years ago, they came up with the song: “Mark Waugh is an Aussie/He wears the baggy cap/But when he saw the bookie’s cash/He said I’m having that.” This is Wildean wit compared with the one-word chant of “Ingerlund” favoured by football supporters.

The trouble is that too many England cricket fans crossed the line between “banter” and boorishness a long time ago. Chanting and booing the opposition have their place – at football matches. But if Test match cricket abandons its own tradition of sportsmanship, it will lose a large part of its charm along the way.

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2009

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A group of survivors, a twenty-something couple, a Mexican man who doesn’t speak English but has lost his wife in the riots, a father and son, an elderly woman, a sports commentator, a Chicago Cubs pitcher, a Chicago White Sox catcher and John Cusack. They are our heroes. They must get across the city to the water where they plan on getting on a ship and evacuating the city.

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