Sunday, January 19, 2014

Sizes of Sports and Time Management

Football (Soccer), American football, Basketball, Rugby and many other well known sports get played in a rectangular area of field. Baseball gets played in a diamond shaped field. Cricket is the only other well known sport which gets played in a circular shape and perhaps that is why it is a "Complete" sport.

Invention of many American games and idea behind some of them apart from fun and entertainment is to induce some sort of discipline into the younger generation. Be it basketball or American football, it is govern by the clock management. Apart from that it is highly organized game which depends upon coach's order (more like army high command orders). Soccer is more of a game which defines free spirit. No matter how much you coach 'em, in the end player needs to get inventive, let his judgement take over to take the call whether to call the shot or not.

Baseball, though is a spectator's game. It probably got invented for some good friends and family outing to enjoy summer/good weather. It does not get played when it snow or rain. Also diamond shape of field is more invented to give maximum exposure to the audience. It is a game of spectator and that is why there are no strict rules or time governing the game.

Cricket on the other hand is a game of gentleman. It gets played in a round shaped and every area of cricket field is part of the game, unlike baseball where you have to hit the ball in front of you. Game of cricket is more the reflection of life in general, where you are allowed to use opportunity of everything surrounding you. Shape of cricket ball and ground is also the shape of earth, giving its completeness. Real cricket (and not 20-20 version of ODI version) is also gets played for 5 days, where it is a test of talent plus temperament and not just time alone.

In Football (soccer), winning team scores 1 goal more than a loosing team, but that is inside the time limit. In American football or basketball, winning team scores more points than loosing team, but that is also within the time limit. Basically it in other sports, we won because we scored more than losers for a give timeline. Test Cricket removes this "Time" factor. Yes, there is a general time factor of 5 days where the game gets played, but within that 5 days both team gets equal opportunity to win the game, and winner comes out with result not bounded by the time factor. In other sports, loosing team feels that had they got that extra minute we would have scored and won, but in cricket you can not say that, because you are beaten outright without considering the time limit.

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