Sunshine, cricket and beer, nuff said.

Well maybe not enough.  Spent the day at Sahara Park (Newlands) watching the 3rd ODI between the South African Proteas and the New Zealand Black Caps.  With the 3 match series all squared at 1 apiece, the day was set to be a cracker.  The weather played ball too, with a smattering of clouds and a gentle south easter.

Now watching cricket has to be one of the most enjoyable ways to pass time, whether it be the sleep in the shade with a newspaper test match watching or the squeeze onto a postage stamp of grass between a 1000 picnics limited over variety.  And with the back drop of Devil’s Peak and a brewery, watching in Cape Town is something special.  When you know the spectacle is going to take 8 hours (or 5 days) there is a different mentality to watching football or rugby.

 First of all there is the amount of stuff you bring.  Deckchairs (where permitted), picnic rugs, cooler box, enough ham rolls to feed the stadium, 3 varieties of softdrink, totpacks hidden in your undies or wrapped in foil disduised as another ham roll, sunscreen, binoculars, camera, portable FM radio to listen to the commentary etc.  If you tried to get all that into Old Trafford it would be half time before you got past the security check.

 Then theres also the fact that for a large part of the spectators watching the match is completely secondary to a multitude of other distractions.  Don’t get me wrong there are those with a German tourist in Mallorca leaving a beach towel on a sunlounger at 4am mentality that arrive to stake their patch of grass 2 hours before play commences.  However , it never ceases to amaze me that people who have paid R200 for a ticket think its ok to arrive 20 overs in and then think that they will find space on the grass with their 8 hot dog gorging kids in luminous face paint, deck chairs, cooler boxes and other afore mentioned cricket watching apparel.

You then always get the budding comedian who belives that bellowing “Hey Millsy hows your mother” to the opposition’s boundary riding fielder is envoking such hilarity that the crowds are stunned into apoplectic fits of mirth induced stony silence.  But as a fool once said, if at first one does not succeed… you see where Im going with this.  So the fact that poor Millsy, who has just been tonked for 17 off his last over, does not reply or wave to the chants of “Millsy Millsy give us a wave”, to our beer guzzling wag this means continue the torrents of slurred abuse until all and sundry are suitably embarrassed and mildly annoyed.  The good thing is that by the innings break Barry Hilton’s lesser known, less succcessful and uglier brother has passed out and has had a fake beard drawn on his face with permanent marker by his mates and there is a suspicious wet patch on the front of his shorts.

Then between overs 15 and 45 when taking 6 an over in singles is not deemed adequate entertainment, you get the nematode in oversize sunglasses and your country’s flag starting what I deem to be the worst idea in sport watching history… the Mexican wave.  After illegal immigrants and piss coloured beer, this is certainly their next worst export.  Oh and they can take back Ole bloody Ole too.

And there is a special place in hell reserved for the person who thought giving kids 2 inflatable tubes to bang together all day was a good idea.  The stadium announcer was forced on numerous occasions to emplore spectators to refrain from using boom whackers outside of designated boom whacker zones.  Oh and you said that safety pin I carry with me wouldnt come in hand.

So minor distractions aside, it was a fantastic day.  They now sell beer in litre bottles, so less trips to the bar, less spillage, less grass in your drink, one person can carry enough grog for eight, and for the really dextrous less trips to the loo.  And if that is not enough entertainment, Herschel Gibbs smashed 119, Andre “Gunther” Nel took an absolute blinding catch, and the Proteas won the match and series.

See pics at  http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=21937&id=534380403&ref=share