Why I am no longer a real cricket fan.

When I first came to live in England I found one of the most difficult adjustments to make was the lack of baseball. Oh sure, I missed my family and the food was different, but it was baseball that really hurt. It was not that baseball was inaccessible. I could get scores and even radio commentary from the newly emergent Internet. I could also stay up late and watch ESPN broadcasts on Channel 5 (although they did finish at about 4am). The problem was, though, after staggering into work with bloodshot eyes after staying up to 4am, I HAD to talk about it. Like an amputee who's missing leg still itched, I would reflexively start telling someone about the great double play, or squeeze bunt or something had happened on TV the night before and then realise, slowly, that they had no idea what I was talking about. Unless I was really lucky, they really didn't want to know either. Sometimes I would meet someone who was interested, and would humour me while I explained the infield fly rule to them. You can only get so much pleasure from talking to people who ignorant of the basic rules of the game, though. It was a great shock to me to realise it, but being a fan is a social experience. Following a baseball team had no joy if done in isolation.

And so, I turned to Cricket. The 1999 Cricket World Cup had just finished, and although the sport was a complete mystery to me, I was able to determine that cricket fans and baseball fans have a lot of similarities. Both sports are full of statistics, records, complicated rules, obscure strategies, history and tradition. Once I started to learn the rules, I found I really liked cricket. One morning I got up, as usual, at 6 am to eat my cornflakes. It was cold and miserable outside. Rain was beating against the kitchen windows. I turned on the radio and, to my utter joy, was able to hear the commentary of England playing Sri Lanka in a beautiful tropical setting. I listened every morning of that test match. By the end I was hooked.

Soon I had a shelf full of Wisden's Cricketers Almanacks and a new radio that with a long wave band so that I could listen to Test Match Special. I went to any match I could anywhere, from villiage teams to an England vs Australia One Day International. I went to two matches at Lords (the home of cricket) and once at one of these matches explained the Duckworth - Lewis scoring method to an English person. During the 2002-03 Ashes series in Australia I listened through the night to every test match. I would stagger into work each morning after with bloodshot eyes, of course, but I was not the only one.

Cricket itself is a fantastic sport, and I still retain my fascination with the intricacies of the game, but.............. being a cricket fan is not easy.

I do not mean the sort of 'not easy' you run into as a non-league football supporter. I'm not talking about hardship. I am talking about logistical difficulty.

There is precious little cricket on television unless you subscribe to Sky. When I first began to follow cricket most home England test matches were on Channel 4, and some domestic one-day matches were as well. So, I did at least get to see cricket played in the summer months. Going to matches was not easy though. At the time, the shortest version of Cricket was the 50 over match. This was short compared to the five day test match, but it still would take six to seven hours. Once I had children convincing the wife that I should miss an entire day's childcare to see some cricket was hard to do. I did not want to just follow England, so I adopted Goucestershire as my county club. I soon learned, though, that in order to follow them with any regularity I was going to need to become unemployed. I got to a couple matches, but mostly I had to just read about my team in short articles in the paper each morning. Even radio coverage of domestic cricket is hard to get. Although I loved Cricket there were times when my status as a 'fan' seemed mostly theoretical.

Then, a few years ago, the English Cricket Board signed a very lucritive television deal with Sky Sports. I do not have a subscription to Sky. In order to get Sky and feel like I was getting good value from it I would need to watch a lot more television than I do now. I am not going to subscribe just to get Cricket. Slowly, over time, my attatchement to even the England team became more and more tenuous. One night, while listening to the Test Match Special commentary, I realised I no longer even knew what several of the players looked like. I knew their names, but they could have passed me in the street without me even realising I had missed an autograph opportunity. I did not mean for it to happen, but my love for cricket began to wither. I do not feel guilty about it. I feel like cricket gave up on me, actually.

I have not given up on cricket entirely, though. I still follow it from a distance. I have so far listened to both of the Ashes tests so far this summer and am enjoying seeing Australia come unstuck. But, so far, I have only been reading the paper and listening on the radio.

After a short period in the sporting wilderness I discovered Bath City. I didn't think I liked football before I went to my first Bath City match. I thought it was crass and ruined by too much money. I know now that only the Premiership is crass and ruined by too much money (but like Dallas, can be fun to watch from the distance). I have never looked back.