Cricket

Language Level: Intermediate

Standard Accent: American

Source: Speak Up

Not Cricket

Traditionally British, Cricket has the best players outside Britain, in its ex-colonies, that, beyond the language, they learnt moreover like for Sport.

To the outside world cricket is a quintessentially English – and gentlemanly – game. Indeed the expression “It’s not cricket” is used when somebody either tries to bend the rules or to behave unfairly.

As if the case with soccer and rugby, cricket was invented by the English. They exported it to other countries, whose teams now regularly beat them. Cricket is largely limited to former British Colonies such as Australia, New Zealand, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, South Africa and the West Indies.

Cricket’s gentlemanly image was, however, badly shaken during the recent World Cup, which was held in the West Indies. Pakistan surprisingly lost to a weaker team, Ireland, and the following morning, Pakistan’s coach, a former English player called Bob Woolmer, was found dead in his hotel room. At first it was thought the he might have dead a heart attack, or that he could have committed suicide. The history became international headline news a few days later, when it was announced that he had in fact been murdered. Doubts, then, were whether Woolmer had been killed by irate fans, or by members of an illegal betting syndicate, who may have had a hand in the Pakistan-Ireland match’s shock result. It would not have been the first time that cricket had been rocked by a betting scandal. But on June 12, almost three months after the death and after both the concurrence of Scotland Yard detectives and probes by a UK Home Office pathologist Kingston police gave in and announced that Woolmer had actually died of “natural causes”. This declaration invalidated the initial report by a local pathologist. Woolmer indeed had chronic illnesses, including diabetes and a heart problem. So, in the end, the only thing certain is that cricket’s fame goes on and on.

A SENSE OF UNITY

Nand Kumar, an Indian who runs a fashion export business, says that cricket has become very popular in India since 1983, when the country won the World Cup, and that today it is “like a religion”, being far more popular than any other sport. Nor do the Indians, whose booming economy, along with that of China, is set to dominate the World of tomorrow, have any problems with cricket’s colonial past.

Nand Kumar (India Accent)

They’re actually very grateful because if two things which unite the whole of India is…one is the English language, and one is the cricket. These are the two things which just unite the complete country. There are so many differences in different parts of region, languages and culture and the food and the lifestyle and the way you live and the way you talk, everything is different, but two things which just unite the entire country, is the English language, which everyone now is learning, everyone learns there, and they use for work, and they cricket, as a sport.