Category Archives: Cricket

Hello. I’m Back.

02 Wednesday Oct 2019

Posted by in Cricket, sleep, Uncategorized

≈ 12 Comments

Tags

I took a week off. The world has not gotten unabsurd. All of the players are still in place. On a positive note, I’m better able to recognize that “It’s not them, it’s me.”, as George from Seinfeld would put it.

I am watching Women’s Cricket, Australia vs. Sri Lanka, in T20I format match. The big difference between the men’s game and the women’s game is that women play the women’s game, while men play the men’s game. Got that? You’ll get the hang of it. The cricket Oval in Sri Lanka is lovely, by the way.

My sleep schedule is still messed up. The lingering hot weather doesn’t help. It should be over by Friday. Still I can hardly wait for the first frost.

Meanwhile, Australia just took a wicket. Sri Lanka has a long ways to go The Aussie women are very good. The Sri Lankan women need to score at a prodigious rate if they are to win.

I could use some sleep. I could use a good cry, also. I could use a good fuck. Of the three, sleep will happen first.

Later, I will share the saga of The Great Suncare Takedown. But not now.

Mancunian Wannabe

05 Thursday Sep 2019

Posted by in Cricket, Uncategorized, YouTube-Videos

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

As I write this homage, Australia is thrashing England in the fourth Ashes Test played at Old Trafford in Manchester.

Way back when Manchester United became a highly recognizable football team, I was more or less indifferent to Manchester, the city they represented. Then, thanks to the gift of YouTube, creators, like Martin of Martin Zero, are sharing their love of this remarkable city.

Manchester is a city of two rivers, the Medlock and the Irwell. There are canals dating back two hundred years. The factories that made Manchester lie idle, if not demolished out right. But the quarried stone remains, her story lives on in these stones and architecture.

I decided I would declare myself a spiritual Mancunian. I found this tee-shirt on Amazon. Now that I have a tee-shirt, there is nothing left for me to do, but renew my passport, apply for a visa, and buy a plane ticket.

Sleep Comes To The Old Man

03 Saturday Aug 2019

Posted by in Catholic Life, Cricket, History

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

, ,

I woke up at Three AM to go to Holy Hour at Four down at my church. Then I came home, started watching cricket, The first of the The Ashes Test Match series between England and Australia. I can honestly say I don’t have a dog in this fight. Both sides are great, with superb individual talents on both sides.

Then around 7:40 I left for First Saturday Mass at the Abbey. The football players at the affiliated Catholic high school were practicing. Football season is four weeks away, whether we like it, don’t like it, or just plain don’t care.

Mass was celebrated by a priest who seemed oddly “out of it”. I think he was OK. I had never been at one of his Masses before and I suspect this was just his style. He was old, in this case, about my age.

Back home for breakfast and more cricket. Then tiredness hit and I finally went to bed.

After sleeping a bit, I woke up, brewed some coffee and am now watching some film footage of Tokyo, in 1934 on YouTube. Japan was a police state, run by a military junta. It had seized Manchuria three years earlier. The Sino-Japanese War, the Asian precursor to the Second World War, would begin in 1937. Peaceful times, I suppose. There are scenes of Japanese military close order drill with young boys in samurai costume. In all likelihood, these children would be dead within eleven years. The vignette was creepy and simultaneously poignant. Wasted lives on display.

J is coming home from work. It is ex-wife #1’s birthday. I sent her a birthday text.

I feel like I have done enough today already.

Cricket World Cup. England Wins.

14 Sunday Jul 2019

Posted by in Cricket, Uncategorized

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

The Cricket World Cup is over. England won. It was an epic final in the One Day International format (50 overs). They tied on the last ball in regulation, won on the last ball of the Super Over. I had never seen any sort of cricket match in any format, prior to the start of this competition. I have had an intense and welcome immersion into this marvelous sport.

The best part of the last six weeks is a welcome break from the internecine bickering of American politics.

World Cup Champion England will not decline an invitation to the White House. No invitation will be proferred. They did have to shake hands with HRH The Duke of York, aka Prince Andrew. And so they did, most graciously. This is Britain, after all.

We saw nations competing who get very little positive exposure in the global media, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and South Africa. Their won-loss records may not have been sterling, but they showed up and played. The stands were filled with loyal fans, who were, well, fans, cheering and exuberant. Much like us. I think this is what Baron de Coubertin had in mind when he founded the Olympics movement.

The world was not suddenly rid of two-legged swine, boars, gilts, and sows. But we didn’t have to think about them as often.

Undergirding the tournament was money, of course. Prize money, like any other professional sport. But in this moment the money didn’t matter. We got to be children again, whether we live in Kabul. Kolkata, Christchurch, Sydney, or Soweto, Richmond-on-Thames or Richmond on The James.

It was so welcome, like Christmas in July.