March Madness

As I sat in a conference room the other day, I noticed how much people were caught up in the tournament taking place in the Western Hemisphere. How some favored teams had made early round exits. How some expected great players didn’t deliver. How huge the official and unofficial worldwide betting pool must be.

March Madness? Definitely.

NCAA basketball?


Nope...it’s the Cricket World Cup.


Duke left the party early...so did India.
The Gators are playing well as expected...so are South Africa and the Aussies.
Will the Gators repeat? Will Australia repeat?

While much of the US population is staying up late to watch hoops across the nation, much of the Eastern Hemisphere’s population is staying up late to watch hard-fought international cricket matches unfold in the West Indies.

And while apparently it’s virtually impossible to get a cricket feed on US television, ESPN in Singapore carries quite a number of the US events. Which means I’m getting a little bit of everything. And because I’m not a big sports junkie, all of this is just overwhelming. Imagine twice the March Madness, still all in one month.

Plus, it’s rendered me useless for comments on any particular play, in either sport. To all the basketball terms I know, I’ve had to add a host of cricket terms, all enormously confusing. Wickets, Stumps, Bowls, Overs, LBW (Leg Before Wicket). Of course, I don’t know that Flagrant Foul, Traveling, Double-Double, Post, and Pick’n’Roll are that much more intuitive either...

So I have to be careful not to let it all run together in my head: “Gators over Aussies at the Swamp in the Outback!” Erm...yeah. Something like that.