Lacking significant updates on American sports, we turned our attention to the sport most popular in this part of the world: cricket.  The islands of the West Indies combine their best players to form an international team.  Over the years the "Windies" have formed one of the most dominant cricket teams in the world, led by superstar and present captain Brian Lara.   During this week they were engaged in a series of "One Day" cricket matches against the formidable team from South Africa.  The matches are televised throughout the Caribbean and beyond, and the matches were covered on local FM radio.

Of course Pops and I tried to follow the action but with no concept of the rules, terms, scoring, etc., we were pretty lost.  I searched the local fish wrap The Advocate for a listing of cricket rules, but I realized that would be like the USA Today sports page having a detailed listing of the rules of hockey.  Eventually we pieced together enough info to follow along and I think we finally got it.  During my stay, the West Indies team dropped 2 of the One Day matches, the first by getting crushed; the second by coming up a few runs short.

Here's a few good links for more on Barbados and the West Indies Cricket team:

The Nation:  One of the daily papers in Barbados, with non-stop cricket coverage.

The Advocate:  The major Barbados paper sports page.

West Indies Cricket Board:  The official homepage of Windies cricket

Rules of Cricket:  A good summary of the rules