The World's 2nd Most Popular Sport

Trailing only soccer, believe it or not, is the game of cricket, a sport that conjures up images of sunburnt Brits dressed in white taking breaks for morning tea and occasionally batting a ball around. They take it very seriously here, as well as in India (which accounts for its disproportionate global popularity relative to the attention it receives in North America). I never understood why it didn't catch on in Canada, considering that it has a stronghold in Australia, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, South Africa, New Zealand, Zimbabwe, the West Indies, and Bermuda. The common thread there of course being the English colonial influence. You could argue that the climate has kept us from embracing it, but of course we do happen to like baseball, the sport that fills cricket's niche in North America. Much like Canada's half-hearted attempt to adopt the metric system, our proximity to the US has led us astray.

Oh, and just in case you thought nothing exciting ever happened in cricket, check out this clip of a streaker getting body-checked during a recent test match between Australia and India (which the Aussies lost, to everyone's great dismay). The clip is from one of the morning shows here that is pretty entertaining.

One last thing about cricket. It really is boring, even those that love it admit that, much like we baseball fans will admit the same but still maintain the greatness of the game. They recently tried out a new format where the cricket matches were shortened from 5 days (or more) to a single day affair. No wonder people tell me that when it's on tv they glance at it occasionally but generally go about their business!

So what else have we learned about Australia? Well, we noticed early on that there are no 1 cent coins. Imagine a Canada without pennies! Well in fact I have. I think they are obselete and should be discontinued. And this is coming from a guy who as a young bloke used to scrounge the Irving parking lot in Taintville for pennies to buy whoppers and sour patch kids. Others have argued in favour of ditching the penny, including some economists. Australia got rid of theirs in 1991. The system works much more easily from a consumer perspective, especially since the tax is already factored into the cost of goods, so the price you see on the tag is the price you pay, and prices are in 5 cent intervals (the coins here are in denominations of 5, 10, 20, and 50 cents, along with dollar and 2 dollar coins). I just realized that I was about to close this post by saying I hope Canada comes to its cent-ses, but I'll save you the pun.

Finally, your list of Aussie terms for the fortnight:

Canada/Australia
tire/tyre
Jean Coutu/Terry White
pylon/witch's hat
pound key/hash key
no big deal/no drama