Category: Sport

Gentlemen vs. Players

Cricket in the 18th Century

Like many cherished colleagues I was brought up with a cricket ball in my cradle, ready for my inevitable success as a player. My Dad was a mean swing bowler and played for Armstrong Siddeley every fine summer Saturday, while Mum was an official scorer, dotting and crossing in all the right boxes. My sister and I soon learned how to do it and waved back to the umpire whenever required.

At more rarified altitudes than ours, the game was socially divided between amateurs and professionals: gentlemen and players – until 1962 when Fiery Fred Trueman (a player of course) referred to it as a ‘ludicrous business…thankfully abolished’. But the distinction had reflected the long history of cricket as a social catalyst. Or was it?

The Beeb had an article only yesterday on that very idea. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-16821779. Romantic and salutary apparently. But I wonder. I’m not convinced that peasants performing for the entertainment of their betters (!) represented anything but an expression of the feudal order. Fraternity, Equality and Liberty it wasn’t! Didn’t the gentlemen and players have separate dressing rooms? Or am I mis-remembering?

A moot point

Our resident lawyer has raised a vital issue:

… how are there going to be ‘British’ embassies to no longer promote whisky? … (whatever name you come up with for the rest of the Disunited Kingdom).

If Nova Caledonia floats away, Britain will be diminished! Britannia’s rump will be……what? Anglia, including West Anglia?

This problem would never have arisen if Victoria’s desire to rename Scotland ‘North Britain’ had been adopted. Britain would now survive any minor pruning by hysterical apostates.

Please submit name suggestions for un-Jocked Britain – there’ll be prizes of course: 1st prize a week in Stirling, 2nd prize 2 weeks in Stirling.

Sweet love all

This is a tough time for patriots. The Australian Grand Slam is already quickening the pulse. Andy the North Brit threatened disaster as usual, but won; while Sam Stosur, the local favourite, didn’t make it over the first hurdle, in company with all the rest of the British contenders.

Meanwhile in deference to the unattached Cuprum, the England cricket team are demonstrating their powers of collapse. Does Pakistan have a point to prove, I wonder? (Not a single no ball yet, I see!)

I think I’d better hibernate for a few days, or the tension will take its toll. Only call me if there’s some good news.

 

Sascoc* Gravy Train

* SA Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee.

Tubby

South Africa has a competitor at The Winter Youth Olympics currently on the go in Innsbruck. Surprised? Me too!

16 year old Sive Speelman, an  ‘Alpine skier’ is participating in 4 events.

The athlete is currently there with his coach.

In addition to the coach, Sascoc have sent a 4 person support team, which includes Sascoc CEO Tubby Reddy, all flying business class (the athlete and coach flew economy) and no doubt staying in fancy hotels, using chauffeur driven vehicles and all the other essentials of an arduous ‘working trip.’

Not bad work if you can get it.

Sunday Times article here, editorial comment here and Mampara (fool) of the week award here

More Cricketing Trivia

I have refrained from posting about the Perth Test, where both teams appear to be intent on snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, but I cannot resist pasting this extract from an article penned by Andrew Hughes in Cricinfo.

Talking about India’s selection for this match, he observes –

… experience leads me to suggest that the kind of team they will pick will be one that looks good on paper, sets off with purpose, gets within sniffing distance of the outskirts of victory, then wanders off to sit in a field making daisy chains before falling asleep under a bush.

While I’m here, how amusing that Sachin Tendulkar, usually known as “The Little Master”, is now being referred to in some Australian newspapers as “The Little Brat”, following his visible disbelief and subsequent hissy fit at his dismissal for lbw.

Sri Lankan umpire Kumar Dharmasena gave him out, and the DRS system – which cannot be used officially because the Indians refuse to accept  it – clearly demonstrated that the umpire was right.

The Saffers continue to defeat Sri Lanka, I see, but only with 8 balls to spare in the latest ODI.   Officially they won by five wickets, but squeaking in by the skin of their teeth sounds more appropriate to me. 😀

Three snippets for Cricket tragics

I posted this yesterday, but on reflection I felt that it was not really saying anything, so I deleted it. But since nobody else is posting (except dear old two-face), here it is again. It’s better than a blank page! 🙄

Luke Wright
As you are probably aware, our new domestic “get the public interested with glitz and glamour” competition is currently under way between eight teams in the T20 Big Bash.

What you may not know is that each team includes one or two players from overseas.   Chris Gayle, for example, Dan Vettori and so on, most of them well-known in Australia.

I had not previously been aware of  Luke Wright, a young Englishman playing in the Melbourne Stars, although I must have watched him at the Gabba a few weeks ago.   But yesterday in Tassie, against the Hobart Hurricanes he hit 117 off 60 balls, a phenomenal achievement that included nine sixes.   Luke may not be good enough for the English Test Team, but the crowds at Bellerive Oval loved him.

Travis Birt
He may have ‘only’ managed 51 off 23, but Travis achieved a hat-trick of sixes for the Hurricanes.  Have a squiz at the video clip.

Predictions for 2012
For those who haven’t already read it on Cricinfo, here’s a link to a wonderful article written by Sidin Vadukut, who uses his crystal ball to tell us What will happen in cricket in 2012.   Sidin has a way with words, and doesn’t mind who he pokes fun at.   Most enjoyable. 😀