Not only was my recent holiday in Japan a good break from work and everything it also came right around the time there's a break in the international cricketing calendar. And while I really enjoy following the game and am relishing the recent mini-revival in Test cricket, it is good to get some time to take stock and do the other things like stats analysis that I enjoy.
The IPL (beyond the curiosity value of the first two seasons) is something I've never really cottoned onto and the county game (which I used to follow as a teenager) has become increasingly poor quality and dominated by international have-beens who are past 35. I suppose that I'm not a cricket obsessive after all :-)
One piece on the IPL that I did find to be interested reading though was David Hopps' piece on ESPNcricinfo. The whole piece is worth reading but this bit particularly caught my attention - "It has a wonderfully rich history - many historians would claim that the Championship is in its 150th year, a fact that predictably has passed entirely unnoticed. We resent anything that threatens to undermine it." Cut out the specific bit about the Championship and it almost reads like a one-line summary of the problem with modern day England. The fact that they are too caught up in their history and resolutely refuse to look forward. Now I personally appreciate history a fair bit (and in an alternate universe might have ended up being a history professor) but the English completely confound me with their obsession about their history and tradition. And the solution probably lies in another line from the same piece - "We feel, as we always have, that we can educate the world, but too many of us laze around feeling the world owes us a living." That's to explore for another day.
The IPL (beyond the curiosity value of the first two seasons) is something I've never really cottoned onto and the county game (which I used to follow as a teenager) has become increasingly poor quality and dominated by international have-beens who are past 35. I suppose that I'm not a cricket obsessive after all :-)
One piece on the IPL that I did find to be interested reading though was David Hopps' piece on ESPNcricinfo. The whole piece is worth reading but this bit particularly caught my attention - "It has a wonderfully rich history - many historians would claim that the Championship is in its 150th year, a fact that predictably has passed entirely unnoticed. We resent anything that threatens to undermine it." Cut out the specific bit about the Championship and it almost reads like a one-line summary of the problem with modern day England. The fact that they are too caught up in their history and resolutely refuse to look forward. Now I personally appreciate history a fair bit (and in an alternate universe might have ended up being a history professor) but the English completely confound me with their obsession about their history and tradition. And the solution probably lies in another line from the same piece - "We feel, as we always have, that we can educate the world, but too many of us laze around feeling the world owes us a living." That's to explore for another day.
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