Good morning, Uni Watchers! And a Happy Tuesday to one and all.
UW pal/contributor/author Leo Strawn, Jr. joins us again today, with yet another unique take on one of the lesser-known, but rapidly gaining popularity and exposure, sports to use a bat and ball: cricket. Pal and Weekend Editor Jimmer Vilk covers this occasionally but since cricket uniforms are quite, ahem, colorful, I’m always happy that UW covers them. And there are a couple non-cricket items covered as only Leo can.
Enjoy!
And now, here’s Leo with…
Some Cricket & Some Miscellaneous
by Leo Strawn, Jr.
I’m Leo…welcome to my world!
Men’s T20 season down under begins the middle of this month and as a Big Bash League fan, I thought I’d share some cricket pics with you all.
But first, I’ll start with some miscellaneous photos that don’t warrant their own article, but are interesting, nonetheless.
Leftovers from baseball that I forgot in the GBO 2024 articles: Everyone is probably familiar with this, but I have to give kudos to the artistic genius who designed the mission bell caps for the Padres.
I also wanted to share this photo of the 1979 MLB All Stars on their tour of Japan. So many pillbox caps! The Expos pillbox has a blue bill and appears to have a blue top.
One rugby item: Here’s a 1905 New Zealand All Blacks jersey. In the team photo, the fern even appears on the manager’s (?) straw hat!
I have one more miscellaneous pic before we get onto cricket. This is a beautiful lacrosse jersey from the 1951 New Westminster Commando.
A reader mentioned in the comments of a UW cricket article some time ago that he was interested in watching cricket but didn’t understand much of it. My suggestion is T20 (Twenty20) matches. They last about as long as a baseball game. ODI (One Day International) matches are longer; 50 overs long, each consisting of 6 bowls, or what we would call pitches, per over, for each side, as opposed to 20 overs in T20 (thus, the name). For several years there has been a T10 (Ten10) league in Abu Dhabi, so a game will last roughly half the time of a T20 match and is very exciting to watch.
Test matches, on the other hand, take days and series between nations involve more than one test. Each longer format brings a slower pace of play because you don’t want your side bowled out (10 wickets), i.e., you want your strikers (batters) to play safer in an ODI than a T20 or T10 so you hopefully can take advantage of scoring for the full 50 overs. The longer the format, the more the strikers are looking for “singles” and protecting the wicket rather than playing riskier and “swinging for the fences” all the time. (The cricket equivalent to that is trying to hit the ball beyond the boundary ropes.) Because it’s rare for the team on strike (the batting side) to be bowled out in T10 due to its short format, it is basically the cricket version of a home run derby.
Below is a diagram that has the basic positions that can be played on the bowling side. Unlike our sports, players don’t have a specific position name, it depends upon where they are playing. If interested, you can watch BBL and all major cricket from across the world on WillowTV.
Most of us know about “cricket whites” worn in test matches, so we’ll skip those (traditional but boooooooring) and dive into some colored kits. This is the cricket team that represents the island nation of Jersey. I think they should wear caps that say “CAPS” for the lulz.
Here are pics of the Lahore Qalandars of the Pakistan Super League, one of the top three T20 leagues, along with the Indian Premier League and Big Bash League. The Qalandars had some bright, creative kits in 2022 when they won their first PSL title with two of my favorite bowlers, Shaheen Afridi and Rashid Kahn.
Unlike players in American sports, cricketers sometimes wear triple digit numbers on their jerseys. An odd example is Tim David, who wears 666 in Abu Dhabi T10 playing for the Delhi Bulls. The metalhead in me wants to think that it’s an Iron Maiden tribute, but it’s more likely that he’s referring to hitting 3 sixes (balls hit over the boundary on the fly for 6 runs). To be fair to Tim, he is a beast when he’s on strike (batting), but I doubt that he’s the beast from Revelation 13…at least I don’t think he is.
Cricket can be a source of some great action photos, like this shot of Aussie Nathan Coulter-Nile grounding his bat Superman-style to avoid a wicket (out). This is the Baggy Greens playing India Blues from an international T20 match in 2018.
Cameras in the wickets also make for some interesting shots, like this one in a match between the Adelaide Strikers (in blue) and the Melbourne Renegades of the BBL.
As you can see, the BBL kits are fairly standard and every club is basically one color (sometimes with two shades), black and occasionally some white…
…with the exception of some indigenous jersey designs, like the Melbourne Stars and Sydney Sixers jerseys seen here…
…and the Perth Scorchers, whose jersey is comprised of two colors and black, sometimes with a bit of white.
They have been my favorites since I started watching about a decade ago, and apparently, I’m not the only Buckeye who likes them.
Until next time…
Cheers!
Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below.
Guess the Game from the Scoreboard
Guess The Game…
…From The Scoreboard
Today’s scoreboard comes from Barry Schwartz.
The premise of the game (GTGFTS) is simple: I’ll post a scoreboard and you guys simply identify the game depicted. In the past, I don’t know if I’ve ever completely stumped you (some are easier than others).
Here’s the Scoreboard. In the comments below, try to identify the game (date and location, as well as final score). If anything noteworthy occurred during the game, please add that in (and if you were AT the game, well bonus points for you!):
Please continue sending these in! You’re welcome to send me any scoreboard photos (with answers please), and I’ll keep running them.
Guess the Game from the Uniform
Based on the suggestion of long-time reader/contributor Jimmy Corcoran, we’ve introduced a new “game” on Uni Watch, which is similar to the popular “Guess the Game from the Scoreboard” (GTGFTS), only this one asked readers to identify the game based on the uniforms worn by teams.
Like GTGFTS, readers will be asked to guess the date, location and final score of the game from the clues provided in the photo. Sometimes the game should be somewhat easy to ascertain, while in other instances, it might be quite difficult. There will usually be a visual clue (something odd or unique to one or both of the uniforms) that will make a positive identification of one and only one game possible. Other times, there may be something significant about the game in question, like the last time a particular uniform was ever worn (one of Jimmy’s original suggestions). It’s up to YOU to figure out the game and date.
Today’s GTGFTU comes from Rob Stern.
Good luck and please post your guess/answer in the comments below.
And finally…
…that’ll do it for the morning lede. My thanks, as always, to Leo Strawn for another fun Leo’s World. Always love seeing cricket kits!
I should have a couple more articles today, plus another of Mike Chamernik’s “Question of the Week” entries, so be sure to keep checking back!
Catch you all tomorrow.
Peace,
PH
