BobHarris.com - Cricket... taken a little too seriously

Books! Actual books!

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-- Entertainment Weekly

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-- Associated Press

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-- Joss Whedon, creator, Buffy the Vampire Slayer

"I haven't seen Jeopardy! since I was a kid, and yet I was charmed and amused by Bob Harris's fascinating and surprisingly suspenseful book. Through sheer force of personality, he takes this brainy TV show and makes it funny and easy to relate to."

-- Ira Glass, creator and host, This American Life

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-- Brad Rutter, top money-winner in Jeopardy! history

Books I'm Getting

Who Hates Whom:
Well-Armed Fanatics, Intractable Conflicts,
and Various Things Blowing Up —
A Woefully Incomplete Guide™

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— Ken Jennings, author of Brainiac: Adventures in the Curious, Competitive, Compulsive World of Trivia Buffs

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— John Hodgman, author of The Areas of My Expertise
and correspondent for The Daily Show with Jon Stewart

"All three [presidential] candidates should read all three of these [recommended] books, but McCain gets first crack at Bob Harris's "Who Hates Whom“... a lighthearted overview of the insurrections and civil wars in the world today."

— Steven Pinker, author of The Stuff of Thought, in the New York Times Book Review

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Cricket... taken a little too seriously

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Monday, 19 March 2007

Amazing world cup so far. Herschel Gibbs of South Africa hit six 6's in one over -- a feat akin to four home runs in one game, only waaaay more rare -- Ireland upset Pakistan on St. Patrick's Day, the home West Indies side scored its first upset win, and perennial underdog Bangladesh rose up to defeat powerful India. And we're still in the preliminary stages.

Here are some Australians and West Indians from St. Vincent celebrating a wicket against the English side, whose fans remain, um, somewhat more sedate:

I wish I could tell you how much joy bounces around these games. The only thing I can compare it to is the Olympics. I'm sitting here in a bar with India/Bermuda on one TV and the West Indies/Zimbabwe on the other, and the cheering when the Windies took a wicket just now was something I wish you could feel while reading this.

But there's loving cricket, and then there's taking it a little too seriously:

• Pakistan's early elimination provoked riots back home

• The Pakistan coach apparently dropped dead of a heart attack from the stress

• The Indian wicketkeeper's house was ransacked after he went scoreless, and his family is now under military protection

Btw, I was in a restaurant last night with a bunch of Pakistan fans. Nice folks, completely mortified at the violence on the subcontinent. So no stereotyping. Still. Eek. As a Bajan sitting next to me just said, Lovie Smith lost the Super Bowl, but he can still go home.

Amazing that this whole tournament is happening right next door to the U.S. and almost nobody back home ever hears about it. Everyone's loss, I think.

PS if you're curious what this is all about, here's the Cricket World Cup official site. I'm on a working holiday for a while. If you're here looking for a steadier diet of politics or humor, there are plenty of folks in the links section worth reading.