The Cricket World Cup, which happens once every 4 years, was hosted by the Caribbean and the West Indies this year, and two weeks worth of matches were held on St. Kitts. St. Kitts has been working hard the last few years, transforming their older cricket field into a full-fledged stadium, worthy of hosting an international match. Apparently the Cricket World Cup committee was impressed with the work, and approved St. Kitts to host 6 matches, from March 14 - March 24. The four teams that played during those two weeks on St. Kitts were Scotland, The Netherlands, Australia (ranked #2 in the world), and South Africa (ranked #1 in the world). So we had two of the best teams in the sport of cricket playing on our island.
Here are two views of Warner Park:
From the stands:
For larger image, click HERE
And from the party lawn:
For larger image, click HERE
We hadn't really planned on going to any of the matches, because we had heard they would probably sell out quickly, could be expensive, and we didn't have a clue about the sport of cricket. It is on TV here alot, and I've tried watching before to try and pick up how it works, but it is harder than it seems! The sport is confusing!
But then, on our way to the gym the night before the first match, Brooke and I met some guys from Scotland. Ritchie, Grant and Craig were here for 2 weeks, and they were attending the Scotland/Australia cricket match the next day. They invited us out for drinks after we were done at the gym, and we ended up hanging out with them and all of the Scotland fans for most of the night. They offerred to get us tickets, and ended up hooking us up with 4 free tickets for the match.
Here we are hanging out with them at Fisherman's Wharf at the OTI
So the next day, Brooke skipped school and I took the day off from work, and we headed to the cricket stadium. We left our two extra tickets at home for Cory and Brad, who planned on coming after their first two classes. This was the view from our original seats:
But as the match went on, we wanted to be closer. The entire lower section of the stands we were in was empty, so we moved down there for the rest of the day. We ended up finding the Scotland boys (wearing their kilts in support of Scotland) and sitting with them.
As we watched the match, the guys helped us understand the game and the rules. Once you start to understand, it is actually quite simple!
Here is one of the Australians bowling (pitching)
And here is one of the Australians batting
Ricky Ponting is the captain of the Australia team, and one of the best batters around. I videotaped two big hits from him, one over the fence for 6 runs (you can hear that Ritchie is not happy about it!), and one over the rope for 4 runs, with the instant replay from the big screen
Here is Scotland trying to get some runs as well. In the first clip they succeed, but in the second, they aren't so lucky
Australia ended up beating Scotland by 203 runs (it sounds like alot, and that is a huge margin in cricket, but teams normally can score up to 300 runs in a one day match). The match lasted about 7 hours!!!
We ended up having so much fun at the match, that we bought tickets for the big game....the final match on St. Kitts, pitting the number one and number two teams against each other....Australia vs South Africa. Instead of sitting in the stands this time, we all bought tickets for the party lawn. There were no seats to sit in, but your ticket included 8 drinks and free lunch. Sounded good to us!!
It was a great day, very sunny, VERY hot. I think I re-applied sunscreen about 10 times!
At the first match we attended, we rooted for Scotland, partially because we were sitting with 3 guys in kilts, but also because they were the ones that got us free tickets! This time, we chose to root for Australia.
We had met a big group of guys from Australia earlier in the week as well at a bar, who were here to watch all of the Australia matches. It turns out that every one of them is a veterinarian in Australia!! Crazy, huh? Here four of them are with me, and one other vet with Brad and Cory
Poor Justin got made fun of for studying during the match, especially by the Aussie vets. But hey, when you have a test the next day, sometimes you've gotta do what you've gotta do.
We met lots of crazy people while we were there
Here are a couple highlights from watching the match in the party area:
At one point, all of the South Africa fans sat down together in a giant line. We all wondered what they were up to...
Then they started this....an impression of a giant bobsled:
In the end, Australia came out victorious. They beat South Africa 83 runs. Then the celebration began
No comments:
Post a Comment