Cricket really was a lot different to other sports that I have been to in terms of atmosphere, timings, and fans to name a few.
It is definitely the poshest sport that I have been to (closely followed by tennis at Wimbledon) and rugby is also quite posh.
The atmosphere is quite quiet like tennis because you need to respect the players. But there are a lot of murmuring and muttering as it is a long day and I found it is more of a social event really. People don’t usually have enough time to properly talk at football and rugby as it only lasts for under 2 hours.
The timings of the day were also different in that they had a proper lunch break in between the two innings. This lasted about 30 mins and there was also a 15 minute tea break as well as a lot of hydration breaks!
Some people including us didn’t come back for a while once we left our seats but you can do this because the match is quite long. Unlike other sports there are a lot of places to go and stalls with food outside with bands and children’s playing areas. Ed Miliband for example left with his son towards the end and didn’t come until the very end but he probably just wanted to get away from everyone for a bit.
The fans are also very different to football in many ways, for example they respect the opposition and actually clap them when they do a good shot. Whereas in football, fans traditionally boo the opposition and try to put them off as much as possible. The only time where this happened was when Starc, the Australian bowler who got Stokes out, got booed but it was more of a joke and he knew it was and laughed it off.
There are also no chants at all really apart from near the end when a section of the crowd sang something but this was probably because they were drunk!
This leads onto the fact that people can actually bring alcohol with them from home as well as buy some which compares to rugby where you only get some there and football where you get served inside but are not even allowed to go into the stadium with any!
Quite strange rules but they seem to work for some reason. Cricket in general is different to other sports in that there are a lot of periods of the game where nothing really happens and it can get a bit boring but this is because they need to stay in the game until the end of their innings.
I did actually really like cricket for a change but nothing can beat football and I enjoy tennis and rugby better as well as there is usually more of an atmosphere and a lot happens throughout the whole game.
Football fans could, however, learn a few lessons though with more respect for the opposition and being more responsible with drink maybe leading to being trusted enough to actually bring and have it whilst watching the game!
Boy in Brazil 2014 