A wisecracking Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle named Raphael once remarked that, “You gotta know what a crumpet is to understand cricket,” before getting his shell whooped.
The sight of Casey Jones sending Raphael airborne with a whack from a cricket bat, on movie screens in 1990, was all I knew about the game.
That all changed after a visit across the pond where I learned the basics of this centuries old game, the second most popular spectator sport in the world, from two English lads, Leo and Rex, who were eager to share their expertise and were hungry for NBA stats.
The 2024 Cricket World Cup is currently being played in NYC and other cities around the world.
If you’re interested in watching the game, learning the basics can be as the greatest detective in the world Sherlock Holmes would put it, “Elementary.”