Tuesday, November 15, 2005
Tuesday, November 15th 2005
I finished up the last Ashes 2005 DVD this morning and I must repeat, Kevin Pieterson is the man! It is the ultimate self confirmation that I don’t to possess the “technical” style of batting that I have been constantly trying to master. Sure, the technical aspects have certainly assisted with curing me of all the baseball habits I had but I always knew that I did my best when my instincts took over and I just let it rip naturally. The ultimate goal is to protect the stumps, hit the ball and not get out. I have excellent hand / eye coordination and being very strong allows me to move the bat around very quickly. After going over all my journal entries I realized that i have come along way in a short time. It has taken almost 4 months of unbelievably hard work on my part to get to the point where I know the rules, the scoring, the umpiring signals, the gear, the techniques, the history, the players, the cultures and everything else. It is such a great feeling to know that now all I have to do is play the game and start excelling. You have to remember that when I started, I knew absolutely nothing about this game. I found a great website www.uscricket.com and for the first time I realized that I am not alone in my passion for Cricket in the U.S. There are others like me and it is a great feeling. They have a great user forum section and I am also not alone in my frustration with the USACA and their inability to promote Cricket in the US. Still, I can only do my part and I feel that once next season comes and I get to show my stuff and start telling my story that I will truly get to help the cause. I don’t want to come off sounding insensitive but until Americans can see an actual American(s) succeed at his game they will not have the interest we are all striving for. I have said this from day one “America can dominate this sport if they had a few good spokesman to create the interest”. I am certainly up for that task as I am sure many of you would be. America has the best athletes. Right out of the box Americans would dominate the fielding aspect of the game. Even watching the Ashes, I saw dropped catches, missed opportunities on rollers through the fielding circle ect. Because of the baseball instincts, Americans have very good reaction reflexes and would certainly stop many of these. There was also a lack of speed in the deep field. It appears that every ball that makes it though the fielding circle is taken for granted to score 4 runs. Americans are born hustlers and I would have to imagine that with more speed some of these could be chased down and stopped for 2 runs. As far as bowling goes, there would be a learning curve but American baseball pitchers can throw the heat better than anyone. Along with fielding, batting would be America’s strong point. Hand eye coordination is inherent to baseball players and once they learned the swing that would be all she wrote. This all sounds good but until we have the interest and participation it is just a dream. Just imagine the impact if some famous baseball players like Roger Clemons, Jose Canseco, Derek Jeter, ect.. made the announcement that after they retire, or even as a hobby, they were taking up cricket. The interest would be immense. If ESPN showed 30 seconds of a few Ashes 2005 highlights of Pieterson smashing the ball into the crowd, Ponting taking one to the head, Hoggard throwing the heat, and Warne landing the ball on the pitch and it jumps 90 degrees to the left and sending the stumps flying it would create interest, believe me. At the gym today I worked my biceps, wrists and forearms and also hit the ball around for 20 minutes. It is so frustrating not having anyone to practice with. If they had nets around here I would be at them as much as possible. I am starting to review the gear I want to purchase, I need a new rubber 5.5 oz ball to throw in the gym and I want to get gloves as soon as possible so I can wear them whenever I am holding the bat. I also want to get my leg pads so when I am doing my shuttle runs and running in the gym I get used to wearing them. My goal is to have the gloves and leg pads by Christmas. I could either get a new snowboard or all my Cricket gear. The choice is easy and if I am careful I can get one more year out of my snowboard.
I finished up the last Ashes 2005 DVD this morning and I must repeat, Kevin Pieterson is the man! It is the ultimate self confirmation that I don’t to possess the “technical” style of batting that I have been constantly trying to master. Sure, the technical aspects have certainly assisted with curing me of all the baseball habits I had but I always knew that I did my best when my instincts took over and I just let it rip naturally. The ultimate goal is to protect the stumps, hit the ball and not get out. I have excellent hand / eye coordination and being very strong allows me to move the bat around very quickly. After going over all my journal entries I realized that i have come along way in a short time. It has taken almost 4 months of unbelievably hard work on my part to get to the point where I know the rules, the scoring, the umpiring signals, the gear, the techniques, the history, the players, the cultures and everything else. It is such a great feeling to know that now all I have to do is play the game and start excelling. You have to remember that when I started, I knew absolutely nothing about this game. I found a great website www.uscricket.com and for the first time I realized that I am not alone in my passion for Cricket in the U.S. There are others like me and it is a great feeling. They have a great user forum section and I am also not alone in my frustration with the USACA and their inability to promote Cricket in the US. Still, I can only do my part and I feel that once next season comes and I get to show my stuff and start telling my story that I will truly get to help the cause. I don’t want to come off sounding insensitive but until Americans can see an actual American(s) succeed at his game they will not have the interest we are all striving for. I have said this from day one “America can dominate this sport if they had a few good spokesman to create the interest”. I am certainly up for that task as I am sure many of you would be. America has the best athletes. Right out of the box Americans would dominate the fielding aspect of the game. Even watching the Ashes, I saw dropped catches, missed opportunities on rollers through the fielding circle ect. Because of the baseball instincts, Americans have very good reaction reflexes and would certainly stop many of these. There was also a lack of speed in the deep field. It appears that every ball that makes it though the fielding circle is taken for granted to score 4 runs. Americans are born hustlers and I would have to imagine that with more speed some of these could be chased down and stopped for 2 runs. As far as bowling goes, there would be a learning curve but American baseball pitchers can throw the heat better than anyone. Along with fielding, batting would be America’s strong point. Hand eye coordination is inherent to baseball players and once they learned the swing that would be all she wrote. This all sounds good but until we have the interest and participation it is just a dream. Just imagine the impact if some famous baseball players like Roger Clemons, Jose Canseco, Derek Jeter, ect.. made the announcement that after they retire, or even as a hobby, they were taking up cricket. The interest would be immense. If ESPN showed 30 seconds of a few Ashes 2005 highlights of Pieterson smashing the ball into the crowd, Ponting taking one to the head, Hoggard throwing the heat, and Warne landing the ball on the pitch and it jumps 90 degrees to the left and sending the stumps flying it would create interest, believe me. At the gym today I worked my biceps, wrists and forearms and also hit the ball around for 20 minutes. It is so frustrating not having anyone to practice with. If they had nets around here I would be at them as much as possible. I am starting to review the gear I want to purchase, I need a new rubber 5.5 oz ball to throw in the gym and I want to get gloves as soon as possible so I can wear them whenever I am holding the bat. I also want to get my leg pads so when I am doing my shuttle runs and running in the gym I get used to wearing them. My goal is to have the gloves and leg pads by Christmas. I could either get a new snowboard or all my Cricket gear. The choice is easy and if I am careful I can get one more year out of my snowboard.
# posted by americancricketer @ 1:18 PM 
