13 Dec 2015 | Cricket
Watching cricket live is fantastic, especially at the home ground of the club you love.
For years cricket was associated with the anaemic sun of the British summer with days out at a county ground a highlight. Things have changed. It could be argued that cricket is far easier to watch in the winter, and most of it from the comfort of your living room (although it is just as easy to watch it on your mobile phone while riding the bus these days).
During the our summer it is only the county season by and large - come the winter everyone is playing. From Tests in Australia, India, UAE and New Zealand to ODIs in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. Even without taking into account England's winter engagements there is more cricket that you could ever hope to watch. A never ending stream of international cricket for your viewing pleasure. All you need to do to watch it all is give up on a normal sleeping pattern.
Trying to watch it all is like some sort of Soviet era sleep deprivation experiment so you need to be a bit picky, but there is so much to choose from. Christmas Day in my household has long finished with a late night to watch the Boxing Day Test in Australia, and this year there is the option to follow through and watch England against South Africa the next morning. Starting at 9.30pm on 25th December there will be three Test matches to watch with only a small amount of overlap. Buy some Red Bull, take a mid-afternoon post Christmas lunch powernap and try and watch it all.
While for most the idea of getting just a few hours' sleep might be too much to sacrifice for most (from personal experience I can tell you it may make your spouse and boss unhappy) there are other options. With the proliferation of T20 tournaments around the world there is a ready supply of daytime cricket. From the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL), to the glittering jewel that is the Indian Premier League (IPL), to the South African Ram Slam if you can find the time there is cricket to watch.
You may even get to watch the odd Glamorgan player. Glammy old boy Darren Sammy is turning out for the Rangpur Riders in the BPL, blasting the odd six and picking up the old wicket in the process. The BPL also has plenty of names you might recognise from county cricket - Ravi Bopara of Essex and Josh Cobb of Northamptonshire are playing for the Sylhet Super Stars as is former England man, Owais Shah.
Glamorgan's South African contingent have been doing well in the Ram Slam. Wayne Parnell has found a new role for himself with the Cape Cobras. An injury to his team mate Richard Levi saw him pushed up to open the batting. Before that game his highest T20 score was just 35. In his first go at opening the innings he made a scintillating 99, caught on the boundary going for his hundred. He followed that up with another half-century in the next match. It is exciting to see a new ball bowler adding another aspect to his game.
After a good start Colin Ingram had less success with the Warriors franchise who failed to make the knockout stages, hopefully he is saving his T20 success for his return to Wales. His 227 runs included two fifties, but he couldn't match the outrageously good form he enjoyed during the last South African season.
Nothing will ever replace the joy of watching cricket live, and come April I will be sat at The SSE SWALEC ready and waiting for Glamorgan's early season fixtures against Cardiff MCCU and Leicestershire, but in the meantime I will be feasting on the winter game.