Organized loafing

by Asitha Jayawardena

"A loving wife is better than making 50 at cricket or even 99," James Barrie says, "beyond that I will not go".

What is cricket? Casting a ball at three straight sticks and defending the same with a fourth.

That's how Rudyard Kipling, Indian born writer who won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1907, defines the game. Meanwhile, Robin William views cricket as "baseball on Valium".

When cricket originated is not clear. Although cricket had been played in England as early as in the twelfth century, the game became popular only towards the end of the seventeenth century. In 1744 the London Cricket Club produced what we consider today as the rules of cricket.

Cricket is considered a great game, perhaps more than merely a game. "Cricket is first and foremost a dramatic spectacle. It belongs with the theatre, ballet, opera and the dance," says C. L. R. James. Nodding, English novelist Thomas Hughes adds, "It's more than a game.

It's an institution". Meanwhile Robert Mugabe says, "Cricket civilizes people and creates good gentlemen. I want everyone to play cricket in Zimbabwe; I want ours to be a Nation of gentlemen".

However, there are opponents to the game."Dear Lord, if there's cricket in heaven, let there also be rain," prays Alec Douglas-Home, former British Prime Minister.

The main point against cricket is the pace of the game - ideal for the snails. Lord Mancroft considers cricket as a game that the English, not being a spiritual people, have invented in order to give themselves some conception of eternity.

Economist and humorist Stephen Leacock reveals another English dimension, stating, "The British are terribly lazy about fighting. They like to get it over and done with and then set up a game of cricket".

And Archbishop William Temple adds, "Personally, I have always looked on cricket as organized loafing". That's why, according to Tommy Docherty, cricket is the only game that you can actually put on weight when playing.

"Baseball has the great advantage over cricket of being ended sooner," observes Irish dramatist, critic and novelist George Bernard Shaw, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1925. And worse still, games of Test cricket often end without a decision!

Rachel Griffiths states, "I loved the indigenousness of different games and how hilarious it is that we play these cricket matches that last five days and no one wins". Another point against cricket is about its postures. Irish writer Oscar Wilde complains, "Cricket requires one to assume such indecent postures".

What are the secrets of success in cricket? "I believed in myself. I never imagined myself as just an ordinary player," replies Imran Khan.And he adds, "I guess this is where I feel I was probably different from other cricketers. I was not satisfied, so I was always pushing myself harder".

Finally, for advice, let's turn to perhaps the greatest cricketer of all times - English cricketer William Gilbert Grace, a medical doctor. Dr. Grace began playing first class cricket at the age of 16, and his first class career from 1865 to 1908 comprises 54896 runs with 126 centuries and 2876 wickets! He reveals the secret of success simply as "put bat to ball".

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