Cricket is very simple, Ferren. It is a form of offensive-defensive 
play like soccer invented by the English so they could impose it on 
other peoples then demonstrate pseudo humility when beaten on the 
field by those people whom they look down on.

there is one major difference between the two games -- soccer, being 
essentially lower class, is essentially fair in that both sides have 
an equal number of men (or persons, these days) on the field with the 
same territory, while cricket, being essentially upper class, has a 
significant element of bullying, with only two batsmen on the field 
(and one of them rendered helpless), being attacked by all 11 men of 
the other team.

it ought to be said that while soccer might be lower class in its 
origins it is still distinctively English in its eccentricity -- who 
else would not only invent a game in which you stood out in the snow 
and encouraged a cold, wet, leather-covered ball to hit you on the 
head ... and then have gall to "sell" it to a startled world as a 
serious game?

:D

As you say -- thank goodness for Kino re. macros.

Cheers, geoff

>I did get a satisfactory explanation of the strategy, tactics, and 
>raison d'etre of rugby when I was in New Zealand: 'There's a 
>position for everybody in town, and we all work up a thirst.'  But 
>this doesn't seem to stretch far enough to cover either cricket or 
>Nisus macros, which I still find impenetrable. 'Lagaan' helped with 
>cricket; Kino helps with macros--but I don't think I'm going to 
>master either one at this stage. Keep up the good work, Kino!
>
>-- Ferren
>------------------------------------------------------------
>(Dr) Ferren MacIntyre   1 Chemin des Echarts
>Campagne sur Aude     11260 France
>42.91500N, 2.20900E    +33 (0)468 748870
>-------------------------------------------------------------
>OSX 10.6.5  MacBook Pro 5,1
>2.4 GHz Intel Core-2 Duo, 4 GB