Cricket...The Game, Not the Bug!

Cricket is, by far, India’s most popular sport. I still don’t know much about the game, but I know that the people in India go crazy over it. And that’s just when it’s on TV. Imagine when the cricket match is being played in your town!!!

Well, that’s just what happened yesterday. The Indian Cricket Team’s match was held in Cochin. And this wasn’t just any match either. This was India versus England. That’s like the Bears versus the Packers, only entire countries are against each other here. This is huge.

I didn’t go to the match because it would have meant spending over half of this month’s stipend to sit in an uncomfortable chair in the blazing hot sun to watch a game that I don’t understand for a good 10 hours. No, I didn’t go to the match. But I did go to Cochin to see how crazy it was.

I went to the stadium shortly after the match got over, and it was absolute madness. Traffic was blocked. People were everywhere. Cops were walking around looking mean with their big sticks. Food vendors were yelling from the sides of the street. Fans were yelling from the middle of the street. Babies were yelling from the backs of motorbikes going down the street. (No, I’m not kidding.) And on and on and on…it was quite a site. And besides the garbage that I had no choice but to walk through and the sweaty people (ok, not that I wasn’t) that I had no choice but to bump into, I enjoyed the part of the cricket match that I got to see. And I’ve decided to learn something about the game so that, next time, I can enjoy whatever goes on inside the stadium too.

By the way, India won. They are now the #2 cricket team in the world, after Australia.