The Thwack of Willow on Leather

[poliphilo]

The cricket season is underway- and England are playing New Zealand at Lords. One of our players got a century on debut- something that has only been achieved at Lords three times before in the history of the game- ain't that wonderful?

Yes- I know- most of you are raising your eyebrows. But here's something I've never understood. The whole English speaking world plays cricket- with the exception of you North Americans. You play base-ball- a related, but less complicated sport. Why? Is it because you opted out of the Empire at an early stage? Maybe. But that only explains the cricketlessness of the USA; it doesn't explain Canada. So what's going on? Does anybody out there know?

Comments

[archyena.livejournal.com]

As for the United States, it's probably a result of the Revolution. That's why we used the words "hotel," "restaurant," "cafe," etc. generally before they became common usage in England. It's also why tea wouldn't become popular until the arrival of iced tea but why coffee has been a hit since Boston. There was a Francophile craze immediately post-Revolution that was reinvigorated with the Louisiana Purchase that led to the aforementioned name changes. It's also useful to recall that despite being among the earliest English colonies, the 13 original ones never benefitted from anything even approaching the British civil and foreign service bureaucracies that dominated the later colonies. It's actually an odd bit of history.