So while we are still not discussing those frightening adventures in the Middle East and elsewhere, cricket fills the hiatus nicely. Not just the game, but the universal language; the same one they speak in England, Australia, India, Pakistan and even New Zealand and South Africa. Other places as well, but let’s not sidetrack. Take these snippets from the London Daily Telegraph on the just completed game between England and Pakistan.
Talking of universality, this particular confrontation took place at Lords Cricket Ground or the MCC if we want to be arcane. You have to read this is a sort of quiet breathy manner, conspiratorial and knowing.
“You know it has been a balmy summer when a pair of leg-spinners bowl unchanged for three hours at Lord's. For those addicted to the thrill of speed, this might have made for a disappointing afternoon, yet leg-spinners - like those baffling 3D images that were in vogue a couple of years ago - turn out to have hidden depths if you stare at them for long enough.”
Now that beats your average jock-speak.
“Danish Kaneria and Shahid Afridi are both leg-spinners in the same way that the Financial Times and The Sun are both newspapers. By pigeon-holing them, you end up obscuring more than you reveal.”
“The leading modern exponent of this art is India's Anil Kumble, but its patron saint was Bill O'Reilly, a near-neighbour of Don Bradman's in bushtown New South Wales, who used to hurl down his toppies, leggies and googlies with all the fury of a man stung by a bee.”
“When a batsman misread his peerless googly, Kaneria adopted a chin-scratching pose, akin to Rodin's Thinker”
The game was a draw: “England had left themselves only a minimum of 80 overs to do the job after batting on for seven overs and five balls in the morning, pragmatism and caution having prevailed over enterprise and risk.”
And finally a tribute: “The greatest of all cricketers [Sir Garfield Sobers – West Indies] is 70 next week, a birthday that will be properly recognised in Barbados.”
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