"This Is Not Baseball or Rounders"





Cosby on why the Yankee have difficulty in grasping the game of cricket.



Put your head gear on and take cover cos Cosby's gonna bowl you one of his beamers. The Cosby's playing cricket!. This was televised on a local channel in the years 1995-96. I'd say it was one of the hilarious episodes of the sitcom ever. Back then we Sri Lankan's have never heard of any Yankee holding a bat or bowling their arm around. At least not until a team consisting of our world cup winning squad toured the States for some friendly matches played against a test playing nation. When it came to light through the media that certain cricketing clubs have existed in America since the time slaves worked in the plantations. After a few minutes of browsing through the web pages, I could find some trivia about the English game played in the U.S. The game had its rudimentary beginnings in the state of Philadelphia and still functions as the headquarters of the American cricket. They even played intercollegiate matches. The first and the most notable encounter in their fixture have been the battle between the Haverford College and the University of Pennsylvania. The sport had a burgeoning acceleration in the 19th century where it was played in approximately 125 cities in 22 states. Roughly 500 clubs were established, however, St. George's Cricket Club receives the accolades for being the first to be found in the year of 1838.
It is unfortunate that these foundations laid by the British colonists and the subsequent generations of cricket enthusiast never launched the sport in the USA to an international level. It could be the fact that there has always been a lack of state sponsoring and that none of their players qualified to play as professionals thereby, losing out in the recruitment as franchises in any of the major leagues let alone them being considered as a test playing nation. There has been several private companies and independent bodies providing an endorsement for interstate and league tournaments but these have abruptly folded after a season or two. The reasons cited for their discontinuation are given as inadequacy of viewer attendance and the cancellation of TV deals.
The ensemble of actors portraying the roles in the Cosby Show was one time favorites among Sri Lankan viewers. The sitcom was among the firsts televised that belonged to the genre of black comedy. It gave emphasize to family values and for the local viewer who wasn't exposed to the daily happenings in the American lives, the show was an insightful window into a closely knit African-American family. However, with the appearance of many foreign news channels the perception hitherto created in the mind of the local viewer was changed as the African-American youngsters were ostracized as drug addicts, drug dealers and frequently involved in gang violence. May be the plot of the latest Hollywood movies had an influence on the change of mindset of the locals

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