I went to my first cricket match yesterday. I saw Australia beat the crap out of New Zealand yesterday at Eden Park in Auckland. I think the Aussies are like the '27 Yankees of cricket right now. Very impressive team. The best thing about the day (and I do mean day...got there at 2pm and left at 10pm) was the completely random rowdiness, violence and hillarity of the crowd in the terraces. I barely watched the cricket, really. It seemed like every five seconds some yellow-vested security guys were hauling some drunk shirtless guy out, or breaking up fights. I guess when people sit in the sun all day and drink the stadium out of the beer supply this will happen. When they did the wave (which they call "the Mexican Wave" for some reason...you can have that claim to fame, Mexico) people would in entire sections would leap up and throw plastic bottles straight up in the air. As the day wore on people just started chucking bottles at other people for no good reason leading to more fights and incorrent yelling. It was awesome, of course. At the end of the match there was a streaker and a truly awesome stadium chant of "Bret Lee is a wanker" that seemed to start the instant he bowled one too close to the kiwi side. Good times! Does anybody else have some rowdy crowd stories to share? I bet the terraces at English football matches are like Stalingrad. Being a Houston native this kind of crowd insanity is kind of new to me.
