Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Live, streaming, and out of focus

Woohoo! Today I finally managed to find 'live streaming' cricket on the 'internets'. After much fruitless following of dead links, or being led to ads for Indian dating services, I was able to watch the last session of the first day of the first SA vs England test. Yes, the picture was about 6 inches wide. Yes, it was badly pixelated. Yes, it was covered with a banner ad from Google which would not go away no matter how often I clicked it. Yes, the session was dull (well, Kallis was batting, so what do you expect?). But the joy of seeing live cricket for the first time since I moved to the USA pretty much made up for all of that. I'm never sure how official / legal these feeds are, but if I managed to get away with conning some money out of Sky TV, well that's a nice bonus.

I may log on tomorrow and find the link has been taken down, but, in principle at least, I now have the whole of world cricket in my lap. Never again need Mendis's carrom ball be a mystery to me. No more will the likes of J-P Duminy just be names on score cards. If I have the time and inclination, I can watch the IPL, I can see the implosion of West Indies cricket as it happens, I might even be able to watch the Logan Cup if anyone televises it, and so have an opinion on Elton Chigumbura's outswinger.

By then work, household chores, and my marriage will have fallen into disarray, but it will probably be worth it.