"First there's the language of cricket, which frankly bears no resemblance to language we use in the rest of our lives. We've resorted to calling overs turns, runs points and bowling throws to help her understand what we're talking about. There are the obvious explanatory challenges presented by the rules watching my husband try to explain lbw (leg before wicket) was a sight to behold and then there's just the variability of the game."
"My favourite of her reactions was when Ben Stokes was hit in the groin by a scorching delivery. Why is he so grumpy? she asked when the camera kept cutting with a regularity that bordered on cruelty to Nathan Lyon as 12th man during the Test at the Gabba. Then when his return to the side in the third Test was cut short by that furious dive in the outfield she was alert to my strong reaction."
A daughter began to care about cricket during the Ashes series and asked persistent questions that highlighted the game's oddities. Cricket uses unfamiliar terminology, so the family simplified overs to turns, runs to points and bowling to throws. Explaining rules such as lbw proved difficult and often amusing. Match lengths vary unpredictably, with tests sometimes ending early, as when Travis Head dismantled England's bowling. The child repeatedly asked who was winning and learned that results are not always straightforward. The child's observations focused on personalities and incidents, notably Ben Stokes being struck, camera cuts to Nathan Lyon and reactions to on-field actions.
Read at www.theguardian.com
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]