The Ashes is a Test cricket series played between England and Australia. I really don’t understand what that means, as I am as clueless about cricket as one can possibly be. I know that the sport vaguely resembles baseball and the guy who plays the position roughly equivalent to pitcher is called “the bowler” which is awesome. I’m aware that games can go on for days, and I also know, thanks to Jerry Seinfeld, that if there is a good pitch thrown they call it a wicked googly. That’s about the extent of my cricket knowledge, other than the fact that some people are worried that a contentious match between India and Pakistan could potentially start World War III.
I’m not going to make fun of cricket, because I don’t even know enough to know if I like it or hate it. I just know that it exists and that it is a very big deal in places like England, India, Australia, New Zealand, and Pakistan. In fact the only reason I’m even writing this post is because I thought this picture was just too good, and I couldn’t just NOT write about it.
That’s right, these two guys are cricket fans, they are waiting out a rain delay in “The Ashes”, they both look like they are about to fall asleep, and they are both wearing Scooby-Doo costumes. I don’t even have a joke here, I’m flabbergasted. This picture is just so good, just take a moment and look at it, that’s all I ask.
By the way, the story of the cricket series known as “The Ashes” actually has a pretty good back story. It goes back to 1882 and is played every two years alternating between being played in Australia and the UK. It began out of trash talk, as many good rivalries do, but this is a particularly good and a particularly old version of trash talk. Apparently after a match in which Australia thoroughly whipped up on England, a notice was put in the paper called “The Sporting Times” which read:
In Affectionate Remembrance
of
ENGLISH CRICKET,
which died at the Oval
on
29th AUGUST, 1882,
Deeply lamented by a large circle of sorrowing
friends and acquaintances
----
R.I.P.
----
N.B.—The body will be cremated and the
ashes taken to Australia.
Evidently, this notice placed in jest by what would nowadays be known as an obnoxious sports writer (think Woody Paige) would begin a hotly contested biannual cricket series in which the two nations would visit each other, play cricket, and the winner would then take a mock urn with “the ashes” as the trophy for the series. Apparently this is a pretty big deal in the world of cricket, and it is going on currently, or so I have been led to believe by Wikipedia. So that’s pretty cool. If you want to read more about it you can do so here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ashes
See, you can learn a thing or two on this here Vertically Striped Socks website! I am here to serve and to educate, now run along, and be a dear, if you’re the last one to leave, please turn the light off. The electric bill has been unsightly of late around here!
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