Taking cricket to the United States
As New Zealand prepare to play Sri Lanka in Florida, Huw Richards examines cricket’s latest attempt to conquer the United States in the New York Times ,
Tariq Engineer
25-Feb-2013
As New Zealand prepare to play Sri Lanka in Florida, Huw Richards examines cricket’s latest attempt to conquer the United States in the New York Times,
This weekend will be an early test. New Zealand plans regular visits under a strategic partnership reached in November. Two New Zealand coaches, including former test player Dipak Patel, were at a national training camp before Christmas. The U.S.A.C.A. has also held talks with Pakistan’s cricket authorities.
Obama admitted to not knowing much about cricket, but Lockerbie is fond of an anecdote suggesting that the job title has cricketing roots. “When the founding fathers discussed what to call the chief executive of the United States, John Adams said that the most respected man in a New England village was the president of the cricket club, and we owe having a president to that.”
Writing for Cricket365, Shahida Jacobs takes a tongue-in-cheek look at how an American commentator might translate cricket terminology into something Americans can understand.
While many cricket lovers consider the Twenty20 format "pyjama baseball", I for one would love it if they employ an American commentator to add even further to the entertainment with their different terminology. Of course, some words like Powerplay and Timeout are already part and parcel of the Twenty20 game, but there are heaps of others that you should get used to.
I've had the pleasure (or is that displeasure?) of watching quite a few Major Soccer League games on ESPN (don't get me started on Tommy Smith with a 'y') and some of the words the commentators use are quite confusing.
Goalkeepers are goaltenders, a red card is an ejection, a penalty is a PK (always good, those abbreviations), a half is called a period and clean sheets are known as shutouts.
Best we look ahead, then, at the terminology we can expect to hear over the weekend
Tariq Engineer is a former senior sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo