Sport Today

Just curious...anything you've done out of character or is there
anything that became a part of your character purely because you are a
cricket fan??

:-)

Craziest thing I ever did was be part of the birth of the Barmy Army.
I THINK it was the birth, it certainly felt like it at the time. It
started out as a bit of singing and sledging, and beer, and it
snowballed. The villains were scattered, and by the end of the day it
was a roudy mob of seemingly-life-long friends.

It started at the Gabba, Test 1, Day 1, The Ashes. 1994. The Hill.

I still remember the first ball - DeFreitas to Slater. Cut for 4.

We got hammered, but it's still my favourite cricketing experience.

Before that I'd never have sung in public like that. Aftwards I was
often seen walking down Queen St Mall singing God Save the Queen!

McCague IIRC.

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cheers,
calvin

Nah, 100% sure it was DeFreitas. Well.. that's the story I've been
telling all this time!

So it was!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0KcCaGu9oo

McCague opened from the other end FWIW.

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cheers,
calvin

Tufnell's misfield at 0.40 was right in front of us. Boy we gave him heaps  
:-)

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cheers,
calvin

Cheered for Pakistan in Calcutta during the second final of the
Independence Cup 1997.

India weren't playing of course, having been knocked out by
Jayasuriya's 151 and Saeed Anwar's 194. The final was a best of three
and Sri Lanka had already won the first game. The tickets and passes
at Eden Gardens were good for the last game, if necessary. Rational to
the core, I couldn't understand why the rest of the crowd weren't
rooting for Pak too.

To my raucous delight, Saqlain Mushtaq took 4 wickets (tournament
average 18). I loved his fearless bowling at the death. But sadly,
Pakistan were doomed once Anwar spooned a catch off Vaas.

At the innings break, there was a parade of past Indian captains.
Azharuddin got the loudest response, while Sachin was booed for having
the temerity to replace him.