The proliferation of chanting in Cricket.
Posted: 08 Dec 2010, 01:52
Housekeeping first - Dave/Louis, if this would be better amalgamated with the "The Ashes" thread, go right ahead. I created a new thread solely to keep both threads 'on message'.
So,
It seems to me that test match Cricket used to be the game for the better half of society. Somewhere for elder statesmen to go, drink tea or real ale, do The Times crossword over a period of 5 or 6 hours and have an afternoon nap, all with a backdrop of gentlemen in white playing a game with an age old ethical code rather than any real rulebook. However, just recently (say, the last 10 years, maybe slightly fewer) it seems that the traditional 'football chants' have pervaded into the very framework of the spectatorship of your average Cricket match.
Just yesterday, when one of the less able Aussies (I know, doesn't narrow it down much) was dismissed having failed to trouble the scorers, loudly and immediately came the cries of "Cheerio, Cheerio, Cheerio!" Now, while this is enormously good fun at a football match attended by hooligans and ruffians (and Westbay Jane), it hardly seems appropriate at a game of Cricket.
Now, I'm no prude, I know that for time immemorial, Cricketists have 'sledged' one another on the field of play and that, at times, this sledging has involved some colourful language (that's colorful for the benefit of Wisconsin Gull). It seems to me that this was all part of the game, but that it was for the players to lower the tone while only they could hear, it is another matter entirely for those in attendance to behave in such a way.
Am I right, or am I, as I strongly suspect, turning, with alarming alacrity, into Victor Meldrew's grumpier (but ruggedly handsome) cousin?
Matt.
So,
It seems to me that test match Cricket used to be the game for the better half of society. Somewhere for elder statesmen to go, drink tea or real ale, do The Times crossword over a period of 5 or 6 hours and have an afternoon nap, all with a backdrop of gentlemen in white playing a game with an age old ethical code rather than any real rulebook. However, just recently (say, the last 10 years, maybe slightly fewer) it seems that the traditional 'football chants' have pervaded into the very framework of the spectatorship of your average Cricket match.
Just yesterday, when one of the less able Aussies (I know, doesn't narrow it down much) was dismissed having failed to trouble the scorers, loudly and immediately came the cries of "Cheerio, Cheerio, Cheerio!" Now, while this is enormously good fun at a football match attended by hooligans and ruffians (and Westbay Jane), it hardly seems appropriate at a game of Cricket.
Now, I'm no prude, I know that for time immemorial, Cricketists have 'sledged' one another on the field of play and that, at times, this sledging has involved some colourful language (that's colorful for the benefit of Wisconsin Gull). It seems to me that this was all part of the game, but that it was for the players to lower the tone while only they could hear, it is another matter entirely for those in attendance to behave in such a way.
Am I right, or am I, as I strongly suspect, turning, with alarming alacrity, into Victor Meldrew's grumpier (but ruggedly handsome) cousin?
Matt.