Cricket in the rain

I was telling my South African family (Stefanie from Germany, Axel from Germany, and Jenny from Sweden who are all living at my Guesthouse) about what somebody I just met is researching. After describing how this man from Sichuan, who was a transplant to Beijing, was doing doctorate work at the University of Pretoria, I tell them what his concentration is in animal ecology.

"He studies cricket behaviour."
"Huh?" Stef says. "They're aren't any here."
"Of course there is," I counter. "You can hear them at night."
Jenny looks very very confused. And then a light switch comes on and she starts laughing.
"Oh. I thought you meant cricket game."

I did go watch a cricket game last Saturday. It was a test cricket match which means its 5 days long and its on an international level. South Africa versus the West Indies. I don't know what the end score was, it had been raining since Sunday night and it was announced that the result was a tie.

The game is not terribly exciting. Just two wickets the two guy batting run between. Kinda like baseball in the way that one team is on the field and the other at bat until they strike out (10 strikes you're out. pitch is called bowling).

I don't understand the game and I was just sitting there on the grass complaining about this fact. All the spectators are well supplied with local beer they spend hours queuing up for (the line must be almost the same length as the one for the ladies washroom). The South Africans around me were appalled at my ignorance and when I admitted that I was a Canuck, they say admonishingly "But Canada has a cricket team."

"We just send them to play overseas," I explain sheepishly.

They finally admit that most SAfricans don't completely understand the game either (must be the booze doing its work). The funniest thing is that right in the middle of the game, all the players disappear. I asked what the reason was.

"Well," my friend says, exasperated, as if it must be the most apparent thing in the world, "it's tea time."

How smashing. . .