Now, explain to me why I wound up watching a Cricket Match in Westpac Stadium this evening. I could not have possibly because I know anything about the sport. Checking with my handy reference – Wiki tells me that there are 11 on a team, there is a central pitch and the idea is to score runs.

And no – it maybe a ball and bat sport but it bears absolutely no relation to US baseball.

(Note, I walked  the city, visited the museum, public gardens and observatory, rode the cable car. Walked down past all the grand all Victorians which seem to have fallen victim to developers who are updating, polishing and chopping them up into flats while they have the opportunity. About 80% seemed to be sporting scaffolding, sales stickers or contractor names. Then there were various shops, munchies, public buildings, government buildings).

When walking back to the ship, there was a sign up about sports parking and a sign on the stadium about the game tonight. Wellington Firebirds against an Australian team.  Silly me, I thought it might be rugby. Wandered out to find internet after dinner and went to the stadium. Turned out to be cricket. I was five minutes too late to get in.

As I was walking away, a young woman chased after me and handed me a ticket. Her law firm has box seats. She decided she was too tired and happily headed home. I went it, stopped at the team merchandise and bought a bright shirt on sale.

And went and watched cricket.

There are these guys all over the field, there are two members of the other team in the center. The pitchers – oops – bowler runs, hops and tosses the ball to the batter. Said ball is underhand and hits the ground once so the batter has to catch it on the bounce. Hit, run to the other end of the central pitch. Apparently if you hit it far enough, you can run up and back. The scoring goes into the hundreds.

I have no clue about the final score – it was 8:195 when I left with the first two Firebirds still up.

I am going to read the rest of the article after I get back to the ship. With luck you will get photos in the morning. But it is now 2230 here and it is a bit late to be out and about.