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06/11/2024 | News release | Distributed by Public on 06/11/2024 15:04
Googlies, Yorkers, Jaffers, and the Cricket Match That Shocked the World
Googlies, Yorkers, Jaffers, and the Cricket Match That Shocked the World
Questrom lecturer and BU cricket team coach Vidit Munshi on the game that sort of resembles baseball-and why it's taking off in the US
US team's Saurabh Netralvakar (left) and teammate celebrating after the US win in the ICC Men's T20 World Cup cricket match against Pakistan at the Grand Prairie Stadium in Grand Prairie, Tex., June 6, 2024. Photo via AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez
Sports
Googlies, Yorkers, Jaffers, and the Cricket Match That Shocked the World
Questrom lecturer and BU Cricket Club coach Vidit Munshi on the game that sort of resembles baseball-and why it's taking off in the US
If you know what a googly is, or a jaffer, or a yorker, and you understand what it means to "hit a six" and to be "clean bowled," this article probably isn't for you. Because you already know all about the game of cricket and probably even know why cricket is having a huge moment, right now, here in the United States.
But for the rest of you "pie chuckers" (bad bowlers)-who only know cricket as that strange-looking game played in other countries that sort of (but not really) resembles our national pastime of baseball-read on.
Vidit Munshi, coach of the Boston University Cricket Club.
Our guide in explaining the moment, and the rules of the game, is a Terrier, Vidit Munshi (CAS'08, GRS'10). With a master's in economics, Munshi is a lecturer at the Questrom School of Business, teaching business analytics. Born in Baltimore to parents who came over from India, he's been coaching the BU Cricket Club for more than a decade.
First, the big news: the US men's national cricket team stunned the cricket-loving world on June 6 with an upset of powerhouse Pakistan during the T20 World Cup, held in Texas. The United States, along with the West Indies, is cohosting the tournament's group-stage round. For perspective, the United States beating Pakistan in cricket is comparable to Pakistan beating the United States in, well, baseball. It's just not supposed to happen-ever. A reporter on National Public Radio said it would be like "the Boston Red Sox losing to the Durham Bulls," a low-level minor league team in North Carolina.
Even more shocking, because the United States also beat Canada, now the team has a chance to advance to the next round. Next up for the United States is another titan of the sport, India, on Wednesday.
Let's let Munshi take it from here.
This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
Q&A
with Vidit Munshi
BU Today:Can you give this baseball fan some perspective on cricket, please?
Munshi:In the US, we are very protective of baseball, it's our bat and ball game. Cricket [which dates back to the 16th century] is the British bat and ball game. It's the sport of South Africa, India, Australia, countries in the Caribbean, Pakistan, Sri Lanka. Globally; it might be number two in popularity behind soccer. [This is correct-it's played in more than 100 countries.] But we don't hear about it much here. What's changed a lot in the last 20 years is that now we have a huge expat population in the US, especially from India. They are very passionate about cricket, they insist this is the better game.
BU Today:Is that what's new-the fact that more people in the United States are playing it?
Munshi:The cricket game in the US has been nonexistent up until 10 to 15 years ago. Amateur and recreational cricket has been here longer. In the last 5 or 10 years, it got organized a little better, as we were better about getting these expats from India, Pakistan, and islands in the Caribbean. The rules of players being able to switch countries also changed. Now if you live in a country 50 percent of the time for four years, you are eligible to play for that country and switch allegiances.
BU Today:OK, so let's talk about this huge upset by the US national team.
Munshi:In this big upset, one of the US star bowlers, or pitchers, was actually born and raised in India [32-year-old Saurabh Netravalkar] and played on India's under-19 national team, a very competitive team. But he didn't quite make it to the national level team there, and he came here to study at Cornell and do computer science. And then he gets a job at Oracle in San Francisco. He was just playing cricket out there and he catches the eye of the US national team folks, and suddenly he's on the US national team, playing in the World Cup against India!
BU Today:But was it really that big an upset if the US team is filled with players from cricket-playing countries?
Munshi:Some people said it was the biggest upset in cricket history. Others said it's not that. We know the skill level of some guys on the US team is good. But the US has never come close to winning a game of this magnitude before. It was certainly the biggest upset any American cricket team has had. For Pakistan, it was an extraordinary embarrassment. A bad, bad, bad loss. And furthermore, Pakistan lost to India, and the US beat Canada. The US will probably get beaten up by India on June 12, but if they beat Ireland, they will be one of the last eight teams standing. That would be amazing. I would not put odds on that happening.
BU Today:Are these US players doing this full-time or is this just a hobby for them?
Munshi:It's really an opportunity for older players. Corey Anderson [a 32-year-old New Zealander] came to the US and now he's on the American team. It's an interesting team made of a ragtag bunch of guys, some with experience from other countries and some with less experience. The American players are not playing full-time. They are taking time off from their jobs. That's a big difference from these other teams, whose guys are making big money and they are big stars. That's what made this a big upset. The US is really only in this tournament because we are a host nation.
BU Today:Are there any American players on the US team, maybe players who grew up playing baseball?
Munshi:There are a couple of players who were born in the US, but to cricket-playing families. I still don't think we've produced a second-generation American player. They would have no real reason to have learned the game. There are a lot of academies now, and cricket is poaching 12-, 13-, 14-year-old kids. But 100 percent of those kids are children of immigrants, or first-generation Americans.
BU Today:Is that how you got into the game?
Munshi:Yes. Both my parents are from India. I got exposed to cricket playing with cousins for the two weeks when we visited. Then I got exposed more when I came to BU as an undergrad. I heard about the BU Cricket Club, saw it as a way to stay in touch with my roots, and started playing on the club. I was the only player on the team without an accent. I didn't play baseball on a team growing up, but I did play a lot of baseball, so I knew how to play with a glove. That's why I started catching, or wicket-keeping, in cricket. That's the only player who uses a glove-the wicket-keeper. I graduated from BU in 2008, but I was still around campus and the college cricket scene expanded quite a bit. They started having more opportunities to play against other schools.
BU Today:So it became more popular at BU then?
Munshi:When our college cricket club team got bigger, we went to New York for regional tournaments and Florida for national tournaments. That's when we got picked up as an official club sport at BU. At times, we had 20 or 30 people pretty regularly participating. COVID hurt participation a lot, but students are coming back, and we are almost at the same numbers from before COVID. We have both full-time undergraduate and graduate students. It's a little disadvantage for us. Other universities allow part-time students to play.
BU Today:Part-time? Doesn't that mean they could just bring in a ringer?
Munshi:There are definitely ringers out there, but our rules don't allow that and that's okay. As a club coach, I see it as a competitive outlet, but it's also a great way for international students to come together in a sport they love.
As a club coach, I see it as a competitive outlet, but it's also a great way for international students to come together in a sport they love.
Vidit Munshi
BU Today:Where does the team practice? I haven't seen a cricket field at BU.
We practice at the Track & Tennis Center once a week. We play games on New Balance Field. And we play away games at Northeastern, MIT, Harvard, UMass Lowell.
BU Today:I've seen the game on TV and it looks bizarre to a baseball fan. The running up to pitch. The bouncing ball. The big bat. Can you give us an overview of how it's different from baseball?
The big fundamental difference is baseball plays nine innings and the teams go back and forth batting. In cricket there are just two innings. One team does all of their batting, then the other team does all of theirs. It would be like if the Red Sox batted for 27 outs in a row. And then the Yankees batted for 27 outs in a row. The version of the game being played in the World Cup takes about three hours. The time length is dependent on the number of pitches each team gets. Each team gets a set number of balls that they face. The version now is called T20. One pitcher or bowler gets to pitch six times in one direction. That's called the over. One inning is comprised of 20 overs. So that means [the batting team] will face 120 pitches. So, the first team bats, and after 20 overs (120 pitches), you see how many runs they scored. Then the second team tries to beat it. That's one of the major differences between baseball and cricket.
BU Today:Okay, that's bizarre. Is there one other big difference you can explain?
You get to bat until 20 overs are complete. Or your turn could end if every person on your team gets out. You get to bat as long as you can until your 20 overs are up or until you get out, whichever comes first. You could have a game go very quickly if all the batsmen get out. The cricket term is if "10 wickets fall." One unique aspect of that is you could have a game where the first two guys score a ton and bat all of the overs and others never get to bat. The first two guys could absolutely win the game. It's not as rare as it sounds.
BU Today:I have seen plays where fielders are jumping over the rope. That rope is a little different than Fenway Park's Green Monster. How different is the cricket field from the baseball field?
The field is a full round circle with the batting strip right in the middle. So there are no foul balls and you can hit the ball in literally any direction you want. That means that your team of 11 players has to field and cover an entire 360 degrees from where the batter is hitting.
BU Today:Let's play a little lightning round of cricket terms. What's a home run?
A six-that's when you hit a ball over the rope, you get six runs for it. That's a home run.
BU Today:What's a strikeout?
Clean bowled. If the ball hits the sticks behind the batter, they are done and out. There are 10 different ways a batter can get out. If a ball hits the sticks, you are out. But the batsman is not allowed to use his legs to block the ball from hitting the sticks. If the ball hits your leg, and the umpire thinks it would have hit the sticks, you're out. That's called LBW, leg before wicket.
BU Today:What's a googly?
There are two different types of pitchers. Fast, they throw like 98 mph, and they can get the ball to swing, or curve, in the air. Or a spinner-their bowling is much slower and when it hits the ground, it spins off the ground. A googly is when a spinner looks like he's spun the ball in one direction, but when it hits the ground it spins in the other direction. That's a wicked googly.
BU Today:Wicked googly! That sounds like something I'd drink at the St. Patrick's Day Parade here. Okay, what's a yorker?
The big difference from baseball is bouncing the ball one time. A bowler might try to bowl a ball that doesn't bounce, but throw it right at your feet. That makes it really difficult to hit it in the air. That's a yorker. You don't have to bounce the ball, but if you don't, the batter has a much better chance of getting the ball in the air. That's called full toss.
BU Today:And a jaffer?
Basically an unplayable pitch. Like a slider, it catches the edge of the strike zone. A wonderful, unplayable ball, that's a jaffer. This could also be a pitch that's super fast and the batsman has no chance to hit it.
BU Today:Is a cricket ball very different from a baseball?
In cricket, there's one seam around the ball. In baseball you have two seams. It makes the wrist action and release really important. The cricket ball is a little harder, which also makes it harder to catch barehanded.
BU Today:Okay, so it sounds like you don't give the US much of a chance in the next match?
The US against India in cricket is like us playing Brazil in soccer. That's the big guns.
Watching the World Cup T20 match between the United States and India is not easy, unfortunately. The match is Wednesday, June 12, at 10:30 am ET. Watch it on Willow TV or a live stream on fuboTV. You can get a free 7-day trial of fuboTV.
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Doug Most
Associate Vice President, Executive Editor, Editorial Department Twitter Profile
Doug Most is a lifelong journalist and author whose career has spanned newspapers and magazines up and down the East Coast, with stops in Washington, D.C., South Carolina, New Jersey, and Boston. He was named Journalist of the Year while at The Record in Bergen County, N.J., for his coverage of a tragic story about two teens charged with killing their newborn. After a stint at Boston Magazine, he worked for more than a decade at the Boston Globe in various roles, including magazine editor and deputy managing editor/special projects. His 2014 nonfiction book, The Race Underground, tells the story of the birth of subways in America and was made into a PBS/American Experience documentary. He has a BA in political communication from George Washington University. Profile
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