i played a lot of cricket in my youth. only ever getting as high as C grade. about 8 years ago, a mate took me to a ‘batting tunnel’. its like a netted in cricket pitch with a baseball pitching machine at one end and a set of stumps at the other. the machine had a tube you rolled the balls into and then 2 opposing rubber wheels. these wheels spin and push the ball down the chute. you can set the speed of the wheels with 2 dials. the dials went up to 90mph (150km). you could set the dials differently so the ball would swing.
it used hockey balls. they are hard as a rock!
anyway being young and dumb, we only had 1 pad between us. not even a box!!!:blush:
so after mucking around for a while we cranked it up to 90mph.
holy sh*t. thats fast
i was lucky to get bat on ball, even after aiming the machine so we knew where it was goin ta land. it was still hard to hit.
then we started swingin the ball.
first ball, whammo!! a 90mph in-swinging yorker smashed into my foot.
that bloody hurt:angry:
ive still got lots of little hard lumps in my foot to this day.
a couple of balls later i copped one on the lower calf. (only 1 pad remember)….
aaaaaggggghhhh…. followed by a few choice expletives as you could imagine!!
my whole calf went black. it took about 6 months to heal. and my skin kept peeled there for about a year.
it finished my cricketing career, right there and then. that and the fact that my coach hated me cause i wanted to go riding every other weekend and usually injured myself..lol:lol:
so yeah, anyone that thinks cricket is for ‘wooly woofters’ has no idea.
i think, of all the ball sports its the hardest.
i played baseball for a season and yeah thats fast to but you know it will be pitched inside ‘the box’ so it kind of becomes a bit second nature-ish. i was no good at it though.
with cricket, add into the equasion, a cracked and bouncy pitch, and angry fast bowler, that you just walloped for 6, and you KNOW is now going to try and kill you next ball and then trying to hit the ball where you want it ti go.and yeah, its scary. if i batted for 30-40 overs, i was more drained than if i was fielding all day in 33 degree heat. just from mental stress and concentration.
you cant compare it to riding as the reflexes your all talking about happen (for most of us anyway) on occasion when riding, not every minute or so as you face balls in cricket while batting.
just my 2 bobs
IMHO
menace.
