Spent the whole of a sunny Sunday at Lord’s, the home of cricket, watching Day Four of the England/Pakistan Test match. After the recent histrionics of World Cup football it was great to see people enjoying nationism-free sport - for the fun of it. It must be the last sport in which everyone wears exactly the same uniform: all white.
Turning to my left during a rare lull in play I saw the only other person on the pitch apart from players and umpires: an artist painting them. At an international cricket match! (How does he get them to stand still? And how would we know?)
The beauty of a five-day match is that when you get home on days 1,2,3 or 4, someone always says ‘Who won?’ (We’ll know tonight.)
But it doesn’t matter a lot. England’s captain is off injured, as is the stand-in captain – but no matter, the stand-in for the stand-in (pinch-hitter) scored 138 runs. Our star swing bowler (a kind of knuckle-ball exponent) is also off injured, but the stand-ins did well and of course the game will depend on them in the end.
But a great day, meeting up with old Aussie friends and consuming copiously of chilled beer and Côte du Rhone.
Can’t wait to know who wins.
After all that beer and wine would you even remember being there, let alone which teams were playing ....
ReplyDeleteThat's why they assemble in crowds, so they can remind each other;)
ReplyDeleteWHose innings?