Reuters: Hawking offers an Encyclopedia of Cricket

[marcus]

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=scienceNews&storyID=5732825

he gave his talk
and conceded the bet to Preskill
as expected and already discussed in several threads

the encyclopedia offered (at least initially) is one
about the game of Cricket

but I believe preskill has declined it

 

[arivero]

I never got to understand cricket.

On other hand, perhaps it is a subtle allusion to the sport of Krikkit, from Douglas Adams' Guide to the Galaxy.

 

[pnjabiloafer]

cricket is the sport originally played by Europeans (England started it), then it slowly spread to the colonies of England, and it is played throughout the world.. I find it quite enjoyable, and play it often, you should try it. (its nothing like baseball, like most poeple suggest). THe bat is flat for one thing, hehe..

 

[Phobos]

CNN/AP reported that"

[Hawking] presented Preskill a favored reference work "Total Baseball, The Ultimate Baseball Encyclopedia" after having it specially flown over from the United States.

"I had great difficulty in finding one over here, so I offered him an encyclopedia of cricket as an alternative," Hawking said, "but John wouldn't be persuaded of the superiority of cricket."

 

[marcus]

cricket is the sport originally played by Europeans (England started it), then it slowly spread to the colonies of England, and it is played throughout the world.. I find it quite enjoyable, and play it often, you should try it. (its nothing like baseball, like most poeple suggest). THe bat is flat for one thing, hehe..

I believe that cricket is played a lot in India, and that the Indian team can probably have a go at the world championship some years, but I do not have a copy of the encyclopedia Hawking was offering so I cannot check my facts.

Perhaps given the number of cricket players in the New york city area you should organize a local tournament

Queens cricket team play against Brooklyn, and so on.

 

[bozo the clown]

i do not know what cricket has to do with astronomy but cricket is fun to play and pretty boring to watch especially when it rains and you have to listen to the commentators rambling while watching the rain and people runnig around puting covers on

 

[pnjabiloafer]

thats really true, what bozo mentioned, its really great to play.. and marcus, we have our leagues and everything, and as for India having a go in the world cup, they made it to the finals, but lost from australia, which is the god of cricket at the moment.. i believe they will the next one, hopefully. Indian people are crazy for cricket, they kill player who don't do good, lol.

 

[marcus]

.. and marcus, we have our leagues and everything, .. .

excuse me, there is actually a Brooklyn league of cricket?
a cricket team of Flushing, Queens NY?
this to me is more exciting than to hear about the standing of Australia and so on in the world championship
maybe everyone else knows about this but I dont
and I grew up around NYC (but no one played cricket at that time)

 

[pnjabiloafer]

yeps, everyone has their own teams, and they all compete with each othere, holding tournaments each year. Not only in new york, but also in New Jersey, Philidephia, and Upstate. Its fun, but i mostly play soccer, and play in those tournaments.

 

[Phobos]

ok, ok...off to General Discussion this goes :)

 

[Tsu]

Well, you don't have to make GD sound like the BOWELS of the earth...

 

[jcsd]

Cricket, except in the UK (mainly in England, though Glamorgan in Wales and Scotland as a whole both have county cricket teams) isn't played much in Europe , thoughHolland have had a national side.

These countries (except in the case of West Indies which is actually a group of countries including Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, etc, i.e. all of British Empires Carribean posessions) all have international test cricket sides:

Australia
South Africa
England
India
Pakistan
Sri Lanka
New Zealand
West Indies
Zimbabwe
Bangladesh

Additionally these countries have fielded test sides (apparently):

UAE
Canada
Netherlands
Hong Kong
Namibia
Scotland

So you can see all the major cricketing countries were at some time part of the British Empire and even all the minor cricketing countries, with the exception of Holland (where the game has only recently arrived) were also in one way or other part of the British Empire.

On the Indian subcontinent, the West Indies and perhaps Australia cricket is the number 1 sport.

It's a very slow-paced and relaxed sport with a test match lasting several days.