Today, at the park near my house, the neighbor boys and some friends were playing cricket.
I walked up there with a friend of mine to enjoy the beautiful day and have a good, long chat. It was wonderful to watch a boisterous group of kids play a sport that is entirely un-American; unplayed and probably misunderstood by most Americans, I've always seen cricket as a fairly civilized sport.
It led me to do some thinking about civilization, sport, and the rules of the game. Stereotypically speaking, the British are known for constraint. They are not an overtly passionate people. I wonder how they play soccer (and where the soccer hooligans come from -- that is great passion of Britain. I also wonder if the punk movement arose along with hooligans due to centuries of personal repression).
I've also been reading a lot about soccer recently. I didn't follow much of the world cup, even though I think it's fairly interesting (summer right now, unfortunately, has me pretty occupied with baseball due to my current job, but I only have 12 days left before freedom). By far the most interesting article I've read about the world cup issues (specifically, the Zidane/Materazzi headbutt) is one from the New Yorker. Beautiful, evocative, exploratory, and even expository. I wonder if soccer started out as a civilized game; I wonder if cricket has ever experienced similar outburts?