The British Invasion

In Grenada that could be a reference to a number of events. The island went back and forth between France and England a number of times. However the current invasion is for a Cricket Test Match. Every hotel, vacation rental and home stay is book for the week long cricket match.

We knew we wanted to see part of the match but everyone has been really under the weather in our house. With this type of match you are never sure how many days it will last, so on Friday we rallied our sick selves and headed over to the National Cricket Stadium for 1:00 p.m. to see what cricket  was all about.

Cricket is an extremely civilized sport; from what I saw it is like chess in that there is zero contact and almost no sweating required. Players still dress in all white, apparently there are no Williams sisters to help shake up the colour scheme of attire. Most importantly they break for lunch and tea. How could I not love a sport that breaks for tea?


Of course in Grenada a tea break for fans is a beer run, but we saw plenty of Brits taking advantage of cheap beer prices (relative to their domestic market). You can get beer for $5 XCD or $2.50 Canadian.

Being someone who loves food I was interested in what gets sold at the concessions. Unlike the hotdogs and hamburgers you would find at a CFL or NHL game. Here it is fried chicken or fish  and chips (fries) another option was Jamaican patties. However like a baseball game you can buy fresh roasted peanuts and cashews, as well as home made plantain chips . We bought a bunch of honey roasted peanuts that were delicious.

Cricket requires translation for the uninitiated. We had wanted to go with Brother Saul or Sister MaryAnn both of whom I am quite should would have a great deal of enthusiasm for the game, but unfortunately I couldn't track either of them down. My next idea was just to find a NEWLO student and buy them a ticket, but even this failed as they were either already there or at the basketball game in Gouyave. Lucky for us our classmate from our Conscious Discipline course was just behind us so we could go back and check our understanding of what was happening.

It was actually a really pleasant afternoon. Unlike hockey where fans scream obscenities and encourage violence, cricket fans seem very happy to quietly watch the game. There isn't even a commentator- which I thought I would have liked because I might have understood what was going on faster. But you quickly realize commentary is unnecessary as it was the same batter for all three hours we watched, the bowlers changed occasionally but really nothing happens that requires colour commentary.

We got to see some highlights. Braithwaite (who plays for the West Indies- remember most Grenadians have British or French last names) got a century which is 100 points at bat. Yay Braithwaite. We saw the Brits score four on themselves by the catcher missing the pitch, ha ha ha. Most importantly we learned how to properly cheer when your team scores four.

I have to say given what I had heard about British soccer fans I was prepared for some rude drunk Englishmen, but British invasion was quite polite and even tempered. Many asked about our shirts, because we look like we should be cheering for England (Caucasian) yet were wearing Grenada shirts and colours .

We left before the end of play because Owen's fever was back and he had been really excellent about staying, but he needed to go home. And good thing we left when we did or we never would have crossed paths with all the goats on Mt. Rush.

Great day, great fans. Sadly West Indies fell to England today but they have one more series on one of the other islands. So I wish them well. There are a number of people following the entire tour of three islands! I imagine the airport will be busy with fans heading back home on Sunday.