In Ireland, today the sport of Test Cricket makes its debutbefore the orange, white, and green. Pakistanhas come to Ireland for a one off Five Day Test Cricket Match, and Ireland willbecome only the 11th nation where Test Cricket is played. The match was supposed to begin yesterday, inDublin, but weather conditions scrubbed that inaugural bat. So, today this match begins nine miles northof Dublin, at the Malahide ground at the Malahide Castle estate.
It is not as if the Irish have never excelled at Cricketbefore. They have, in other formats, but never the supreme expression ofCricket greatness, the multiple day test match. Once upon a time, not too many years ago, being a cricket player inIreland could bring serious reproaches from the neighbors. Perhaps with the spread of cricket into somany of the Asian countries, and Ireland no longer thinking just like anisland, cricket has developed on these shores greatly in the last severalyears. There are records of cricket being played in the Emerald Isleas early is 1731. It is just possiblethat, like soccer in both the USA and Ireland, the home country likes their ownsports much better than something foreign. Baseball and Football reign supreme in the US, Irish Football andhurling in Ireland. This has not stoppedCrickets development, though, and now this great advancement into the popularimagination of the Irish. 6.000 peoplereportedly braved the terrible conditions on Friday, in hopes of seeing thematch, and waited until the game was called. It is presumed they will return Saturday, perhaps with even more fans,to see the first day of a test match. Capacity at the Malahide grounds is reportedly11.500, let's hope they fill the grounds for an exciting test match! In Spain, preparations have been underway all week for theGrand Prix, to be held Saturday (to determine pole position) and the actualrunning on Sunday. A key player may be Max Verstappen, well known to readers ofthis space. He won his first Formula Onerace in 2016 in Spain when he became, at 18 years old, the youngest driver everto win a Grand Prix race. For a Hollander, this success has been great,and with the years he has become even better as a driver, and a better knownquantity with the fans. The Circuit deCatalunya was the site of his first victory, and he returns there for thisSpanish Grand Prix. It is said thatVerstappen, who this season has been involved in accidents and incidents coulduse a quiet race, even coasting to fourth or fifth place would be good forhim. Sebastian Vettel remains a keyopponent, of course. It will beinteresting, today, to see who achieves which pole positions. In the meantime also in Spain, Rafael Nadal has broken an oldrecord, and been broken himself. Hebroke John McEnroe's longstanding record for consecutive victories, at theMadrid open on Thursday, and Friday, on that same more or less home court, lostin the quarterfinals to nemesis Dominic Thiem. Saturday will see some semifinal action before the finals on Sunday the13th. In the meantime, also in Spain, the San Isidro Festival is ongoingat the Las Ventas Bullring in Madrid. This is perhaps Spanish Bullfighting's most visible festival of theyear. -- Posted By Blogger to SR at 5/11/2018 08:09:00 PM -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "omnisport" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/omnisport. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
