I grew up in the US but have lived in Australia a very long time. However, it absolutely blows people’s minds that I’m into cricket and I regularly get questions about it, because well… Americans don’t know cricket. (They actually do have a team now but it’s definitely not commonplace.) It all started for me in New Zealand, actually.
We were in a pizza place in Auckland, NZ three years ago and cricket was on the TV. For lack of anything else to do, I asked my husband what the deal was. I’d heard people slag off cricket as boring and long and pointless, but I thought I’d give it a try. He did his best to explain and it took a long time before I properly got it. I started off with T20 because it’s ~3 hours and much more in the realm of something easily consumable.
Recently I’ve gotten into test cricket, after I accepted the fact that I’d have to dip in and out of the games and attempt to work out where the hell they were up to in the gameplay. I still haven’t gotten the hang of that but I actually do find it relaxing to have on in the background while I’m doing other things. It gives my brain something to fill the space that’s usually occupied with useless or counterproductive thought noise.
So yes, I’m an oddity. Someone with the wrong accent who is obsessed with cricket. Many people have also said that cricket is something people grow up with, and generally don’t get into later in life. I could see how that could make things easier, because I have been watching this for 3 years and still have to look up what the field positions are. I’ll get there eventually. Give this weirdo some time.