Craziest lengths you ever went to to watch a cricket match

[Donal Cozzie]

After a full day of lectures, and knowing I had another full day of lectures the following day AND a 6 hour trip to Belfast to make immediately following that, I got 1 hour sleep to watch Ireland U19s play India U19s at 2am on a dodgy stream in the 2016 WC, that too after Ireland had lost a warm up game to a team India defeated by 400 (Yes, 400) runs.

Was a decent enough game in the end!

 

[Slog]

Was in the US for undergrad at the time. This was during WC2011.

Pakistan was playing the semi final against India. And match started at 4am.

Also had a statistics midterm at 8am that day. Somehow pulled strings with the TA who I luckily had been with a couple of weekends prior and got the midterm rescheduled just for me for 11am. (That’s how far she could take it)

That was one part.

I really wanted to watch it on a big screen and HD. Some of the Pakistani and Indian seniors at college had a 60 inch TV and a Willow subscription so I wanted to watch it with them obviously.

They lived about 15 mins drive away from me and obviously there’s no way to get to them at 330am. There were no Uber’s all then either (in any case it’s a small college town so wouldn’t be possible today even at that time).

So somehow ended up convincing my **** neighbor with a car to drive me at 330am to the desi house.

So finally I was there for the match.

We did well in the first innings and in the 2’nd hafeez and Akmal were going all guns blazing till I left to finally go for my midterm.

However when I got out of my midterm I immediately took on my phone and put on cricinfo. And I still remember it to this day.
110/4.... I knew it was gone....

 

[nextover666666]

I'm skipping work and school to watch India vs Pakistan this Wednesday. Lol craziest I would say was ironically India vs Pakistan Asia cup match in 2012.

I live in Canada, that match was starting at 2:00 am and I had the longest day ever, first I had an exam at 8 am and got to school at 6:30 am to study after my exam I had to go to work finished work at 5pm and went to gym finished gym at 7 pm saw my ex girlfriend at the time for an hour or so than took a bus to go all the way to the other side of Montreal to meet my family at a restaurant since one of my dads clients son was getting married stayed at the resto till 1:00 am got home at 1:50ish. My whole family started going to bed and I started to go to the basement since that's where my computer was to watch the match ( my mom said I am crazy and wasting my time and that Pakistan would lose) could barley open my eyes and even said if Pakistan are doing bad I will call it a night but the batting display was perfect and Pakistan scored 329 so I had energy and in my mind I said Pakistan have won this game, so I wanted to see the whole match. Pakistan got an early wicket off second delivery and I'm like that's it we got this game and than Virat kohli came and rest was history he score the famous 183 runs , and i stayed up praying he wouldn't make 200 which made me happy but like an odour I stayed up watching the game too see Pakistan lose right after the match finished I went to bed and woke up at 2 pm. I realized that I had an exam at 11:00 am missed it and failed the exam but if I had to do it all over again I would lol

 

[aloo paratha]

Missed school for the Semi Final in 2011, only because my mom was so passionate about cricket. At that time I was in like 3rd grade and really didn't have any idea about cricket and if we were winning or losing, but I was just happy to be home. That's probably the furthest I've gone.

This could change next year though

 

[aloo paratha]

I guess I could also include CT final 2017.It was Ramadan, woke up at 6AM, probably only got like 4 hours of sleep, but not once during the match did I feel sleepy, it was worth it!

 

[happydavy]

Back in 90s, there was this India WI match in my hometown in India. I was like 11-12 and mad about cricket then. Reached school and pretended to have an acute stomach ache. Principal was kind enough to send me home, I instead went to stadium running (stadium was like 3-4 kms from school). Got inside the stadium, and enjoyed the match dancing with joy throughout. And then catastrophe happened. Apparently TV cameras caught me for a couple of seconds, which was seen by my neighbor aunty who told my mom, who in turn called the school to check if I was there. I don't want to get into the post match celebrations I had at home and next day at school, the wounds are still fresh.

 

[Dagestani_Eagle]

Asked a teacher in college that Indo-Pakistan match just started and he should let not take class anymore. He happily obliged

 

[Arham_PakFan]

I have skipped school and college many times for Pakistan's games in Australia/NZ.

One time in college I pretended to be sick and was allowed to leave for home early. I arrived in time for the start of the first test match against Australia in 2016.Fortunately it was a day-nighter so started a bit late.

 

[Nil Dhumrojal]

160000ft

 

[cricketindiafan]

1996 Toronto Cup, matches would start at 7 PM and go on till 2.30-3 am in the morning India time. I was staying away from home with a couple of friends, who were equally cricket crazy. We did not have a TV or a Satelite network connection (think the matches were on ESPN at that time). There was a medicine shop in the market nearby, owner had a very small TV set in his shop, we somehow convinced one of his attendants to keep the shop open till the matches got over.

First match, think the match got over at around 2 am or even later due to a long rain delay, we were walking down to home, a police van came and started questioning us. Luckily we had our school id cards with us. We were let go but next morning had to see the Principal in his office. That did not deter us though, watched all 5 matches that year.

IIRC there were back to back matches like on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. By the 3rd ODI, we were so sleep deprived, we would go to school and pretend to be sick and rest in the sick room for a few hours LOL. Some memories those.

 

[FastBowlingAllrounder]

(First post, here goes!!)

I remember I was returning from overseas when that Pakistan vs. India Asia Cup 2014 match took place. I was at Dubai Airport for a 4 hour wait for the plane, connected to their wifi and tried to find a stream online but failed. Then, called up on my friend who kept feeding me live updates via text until he decided it would be better to video call me and put his phone camera in front of the TV screen. Could barely make out the pitch let alone what was happening but can proudly say I watched that last over sitting in the airport.

 

[hadi123]

Good thread. I missed school for the 2011 WC semi final between Pakistan and India but other than that don't think I have done anything crazier to watch a match.

 

[Imran Hasan]

That was Ashraful-Aftab era in BD team then and the match was held in Fatullah stadium which are couple of miles away from my house. I have skipped one of semester exam to be in the stadium to watch the match. It was probably chemistry exam and I have passed in the final but my grade was low because of that missed semester exam.

 

[Imran Hasan]

I am an avid fan of cricket and I was not more than a mahalla cricketer in my life but there were couple of interesting things related to cricket. I was named after Imran khan and I lost my first baby tooth to a cricket ball.

 

[Miandad_fan_number_one]

Last year when Pakistan played Sri Lanka during the CT. I set off in the morning at around 4:30am from Yorkshire. This was after 30 minutes of closing my eyes (not sleeping). I was also fasting that day. We traveled to Cardiff and got there for around 10:30am and I remember resting during the interval.

I finally arrived home at 10:00pm that night. Extremely sleep deprived and my health was seriously affected. However the match was amazing and I was happy to have seen the team get through that day. I remember falling asleep on the motorway luckily I wasn't driving. I wouldn't recommend this to anyone lol!!!

During the 2007 T20 WC final I left school early to come home to Pakistan batting. It was a very sad day.

 

[Amirforpresident]

I might be skipping school tomorrow you never know

 

[Hasan123]

Called in sick for school to watch the semi final in 2011.

 

[UP]

Taking a day off tomorrow

 

[Realromeo]

After a full day of lectures, and knowing I had another full day of lectures the following day AND a 6 hour trip to Belfast to make immediately following that, I got 1 hour sleep to watch Ireland U19s play India U19s at 2am on a dodgy stream in the 2016 WC, that too after Ireland had lost a warm up game to a team India defeated by 400 (Yes, 400) runs.

Was a decent enough game in the end!

What is the scorecard brother ? I thought it was Canada who let us score 490 in that WARM UP match ?

 

[Hawkeye]

I am an avid fan of cricket and I was not more than a mahalla cricketer in my life but there were couple of interesting things related to cricket. I was named after Imran khan and I lost my first baby tooth to a cricket ball.

Haha amazing.