“Lillie approaches from the Vulture Street End, Boycott pads up, its bowled him, Boycott’s off stump knocked out of the ground, no shot offered……”, the lounge room roars into action, grown men cry, dogs bark, people flood the street tossing hats in the air rejoicing, backs are slapped, beers are poured, this is summer this is cricket, this is heaven, their best batsman bowled without offering a shot, life doesn’t get any better than this, ah yes, cricket where the only thing better than cricket is more cricket.
Yes cricket, the one true national game. Forget your football codes cricket is life and life is cricket. Understanding cricket is easy. Get more runs then they do, simple. Nothin’ too hard bout that. And yes the culture, the joy, the atmosphere, its quasi-religious and coming from an atheist that’s saying something.
As a kid growing up in Wollongong all my mates played cricket and for me batting, bowling or fielding I couldn’t care less, just playing the game was all I needed. Weekends were cricket in the juniors Saturday morning, Grade in the afternoon. Sunday morning surf then when the nor’easter came in cricket in the park with me mates. Mum had to come and get me for tea as the sun had set ages ago. She’d call out from the street “Hung, get home, it’s as black as, tea’s on the table, how can you see that ball anyhow?”, “But Mum, a century beckons”, I always wondered why mum called me Hung when my name’s Xavier, anyway some things are a mystery.
My Dad, an Englishman tolerating us colonials, would get the bus to the bottom of Bulli Pass and hold up a sign “SCG”, someone would always pull over and give him a lift. I was too young to go along at first but then my initiation came, the SCG, the hallowed turf, the smell of the freshly cut grass, the crowd, the banter between the Poms and the Aussies, always witty, never violent or abusive and supporters of both sides could sit together and barrack for their team. Mum would pack ham and mustard sandwiches and Dad would shout an ice cream, bliss.
Then as a young man going to the test with my mates, eskies full of beer, pies and hotdogs, hot chips and seagulls. Doug Walters would stride out and the crowd would erupt, “Douggie, Douggie” we’d chant. If he got a boundary the noise was deafening, all of us would rise as one, “You bewdy”. Then tragedy, Douggie caught in the covers, “Poms can’t field, how’d they catch that “.
Then as I aged a bit more and the Hill disappeared and my brother-in-law, Brad, and I would sit in the stands. One birthday, which falls in January, somewhere between the 4th and the 6th, hint hint, we went to the SCG and watched India play, Azzarudin, mate, me and Brad wanted to make him an honorary Aussie, he was brilliant. But it was against the Poms that was best, the old dart, the mother country, those were the days.
Tutu and I moved to Adelaide in the eighties and loved it. 15 minutes to the oval, no rain, 5 days of heaven. Saw the mighty West Indies, Adam Gilchrist, V.V.S Laxman, Wasim Akram and the graceful Brian Lara. In the first few years here, Tutu would bring books to the game to read but it gets hot in summer, 40 plus, so now she drops me at the Oval and goes on a spending spree on my credit card, I mean am I a winner or what ?
- So for those that don’t understand cricket, don’t worry. Just pretend you like it or compromise like Tutu and read a book, enjoy the fresh air, the sun, the community, being as one with total strangers, applauding your opponent for good play, all of these things are cricket and oh yes check the scoreboard occasionally.
- Now available at: http://hungoneon.wordpress.com/2010/06/12/about-middle-and-off-hungs-wide-world-of-sport/
gerard oosterman said:
Here some riveting news; compliments ABC. Don’t ever complain that Sunday afternoons are taken over by the ‘demon of Noontide’.
Enjoy.
Former prime minister John Howard says he will leave any decision on his re-nomination for the ICC vice-presidency in the hands of Cricket Australia.
Mr Howard’s bid for the position was defeated at an International Cricket Council board meeting in Singapore earlier this week after only England, Australia and New Zealand supported the move.
He has told Channel Nine he was disappointed to see bloc voting by Asian and African cricket confederations.
“No one part of the world, no one country should dominate cricket,” he said.
“People in the past criticised the fact it was dominated by England and Australia, and now we don’t want to replace one perceived domination by another.”
Having remained bullish ever since he was rejected as the next president of the game’s governing body in Singapore, Mr Howard shifted onto more diplomatic ground as CA continued to mull over what to do about the impasse.
While still questioning how the ICC’s members could have ignored a rotational clause in the process to determine the presidency, Mr Howard spoke generously of India, the game’s dominant force and the key opponent of his nomination.
“I’d like the job but at this stage it’s hit a roadblock, and what happens from now on is really CA’s call, it’s not about me, it’s about the future of the game,” Mr Howard said.
“I went into this because I love cricket very much and I had the time to devote to it and the energy and the commitment, but what happens from now on CA and New Zealand Cricket have been asked to re-nominate and they obviously separately and together will meet and talk about the situation.
“They’ve got to pay regard to what’s happened, given that we had apparently put in place a procedure for choosing by rotation the president and vice president of the ICC, and that appears to have been pushed to one side in the last week.
“But equally they’ve got to look at the future of the game.”
The subcontinental media has been awash with reports painting Mr Howard’s ICC rejection as a victory for the region over their white former colonial oppressors.
Responding to the notion that Indian board president Shashank Manohar had swung the tide of global support against him, Mr Howard was guarded.
“We have to be careful of making India some kind of target of disdain in world cricket,” he said.
– ABC/AAP
Tags: sport, cricket, australia, singapore
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Warrigal said:
He’s still filth, whichever way he tries to whitewash it.
They don’t want him because his every word and action up to this point have shown him to be a tiny minded whitey racist fuck. That CA would even consider giving him the nod when the NZ candidate not only has cricket admin experience and a good rep on the sub continent shows how out of touch Malcolm Speed and CA are.
The message is clear.
“Hey Whitey! It’s no longer your game! It belongs to us now and you can play but you don’t get to call the shots anymore. Have ya got that Whitey!”
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Voice said:
You could be right Warrigal. India IS an incredibly racist country.
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Warrigal said:
Sadly all too true Vox; a society riven by prejudices of hierarchy and social position against all manner of peoples, created independent and then torn asunder in sectarian violence and all so easily turned to racism in the modern age; but then they had all those years of the Raj to learn at the feet of the masters.
I remember as a very little fella sneaking in to the lounge room to see my Dad amusing guests by doing a drunken impression of a colonial “District Officer” trying to get his char walla to understand English by shouting at him in increasing volume as if at some point, by sheer force of sound pressure, the walla would eventually spontaneously understand English.
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gerard oosterman said:
I don’t think cricket is boring but more of a case of being incomprehensible for those not born with that special gene. The ruckus about J.Howard not being nominated for a cricket seat on the Board and the endless ABC’s coverage of that event was mind boggling. I always thought it is a sport, whereby countries or teams compete in being the best.
Does it matter, who sits on a board? What is the importance of all that ‘Board Talk’, as long as cricketers can swing their bats and catch their balls, it, ( the Board) seems a mere trifle.
As I understand, cricket is very much a game of form and ritual, so, perhaps the International Cricket Board is also part of that form and ritual.
Could a woman ever become the president of a Cricket Board. If so, I’ll ask Helvi.
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Hung One On said:
GO, wait till the ICB arms themselves like the ICCB, spooky
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Warrigal said:
G, ya don’t get it because you’re a sensible well adjusted modern human being whereas the ABC, Cricket Australia and John Howard are all racist non entities with fascist axes to grind. There position on all this has nothing whatever to do with cricket and everything to do with their inability to accept that the modern world has moved on from the days when anybody who wasn’t an anglo-celt and particularly people of colour where considered sub human, worthy of nothing more than indulgence at best but usually just contempt and condescension.
See it’s simple really.
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Hung One On said:
Yes cricket and boring are synonymous, I think that’s why I liked it so much.
Yes jam this afternoon, sounds great.
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astyages said:
Yo, un… dammit my keyboard doesnt want to use certain keys; see if you can uess wic ones…
Anyway, un, you know Ive always been a fan of your work, even if does talk an awful lot about cricket; its wat you do wit it tat makes it interestin… and I can still be as bored wit ordinary cricket talk as I want to be…
Lookin forward to our jam later today; still avent seen Abner, tou; I ope e asnt forotten!
ope you can make sense out of tis post too… Voice, you must be rit! I need a new keyboard!
🙂
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Hung One On said:
No don’t get a new keyboard. You are finally starting to make sense 🙂
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