Barmy Army to get Wi-Fi to the seat for cricket's Ashes Reg-reading Barmy Army members headed to Australia for the return Ashes* test cricket series will find a marvellous combination of cricket and technology await them during the series' fourth match, after the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) announced it will introduce WiFi to the seat. Details of exactly what is on offer, and how …
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In 1882 Australia, then a lowly and rough-house colony, defeated the motherland England at cricket. Wags in Blighty published a fake death notice for English cricket, declaring its Ashes would be taken to Australia for burial. The idea caught on and the two nations have competed for The Ashes ever since.
And the Poms have been sooking about losing that game ever since
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I love cricket, me, and it's good to see it being defended, but I must say I'm not sure about the golf analogy. The only tournament I can think of that can end in a draw is the 3-day Ryder Cup, pretty much anything else will go to a playoff to find a winner, won't it? Not a golf expert, so happy to be corrected here.
@Harvey Trowell re:Bootnote
I believe you are correct. The Ryder Cup can be drawn but in that case the defending team keeps the cup so has sort of won anyway. Major golf tournaments last 4 days with an outright winner decided by playoffs if there are equal lowest scores after 72 holes.
However, I think that if the weather prevents a result then the trophies may be shared. Modern cricket isn't that dissimilar in that draws generally happen because the weather prevents 5 full days of cricket, you don't get many draws after 5 full days.
Golf isn't a bad analogy in that the duration is part of the brilliance. In many ways I don't try and defend the time that test match cricket takes because that is the point. In major golf you can have a great 18 holes but you have to keep that going for 54 more over the next three days with increasing pressure. Cricket is even better, you can play well for a period, but you have to keep playing well (or not screw up) for 5 days under massive pressure, more so in The Ashes. Things don't always happen, but when they do it's huge because it isn't guaranteed and can change so much. One moment can decide 5 days of efforts.
The Ryder Cup can be drawn but in that case the defending team keeps the cup so has sort of won anyway.
Almost all Test match series are played for a trophy ("The Ashes", "The Border-Gavaskar Trophy", "The Wisden Trophy", "The Pataudi Trophy" for Eng vs Aus, Aus vs Ind, Eng vi WI and Eng vs Ind respectively), and in all cases if the series ends in a draw, the holders retain the trophy.
If you consider a team golf tournament like the Ryder Cup, then the individual rubbers are akin to each cricket match in a series, and the tournament itself is akin to the series.
@ukgnome
Seconded, I love cricket too, glad to see it get some airing on El Reg.
It was very pleasant to be out in the US recently. Often talking sport, it would seem that (real) football is getting quite big (perhaps it might not be so in more rural areas) but I did have fun explaining cricket. They were really interested but I did realise just how difficult it is to explain cricket but only in brief!
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