Harry's Tales: Cricket
Is cricket a gentlemanly passtime? Harry Wroth has a friend who sees the game in a different light.
We were watching a day-night cricket match. Well into the second innings rain stopped play.
We had had several beers over the previous hours to overcome the humidity and tension.
My friend said "This is ridiculous. Two men come out to face eleven men, they have traditional weapons, they use shields and six spiked sticks, they wear spiked shoes, they deliberately throw a hard projectile directly at each other, they use war paint, they wear masks, they have strikes and sometimes sit down strikes, they hit, they argue sometimes, they dispute authority sometimes, they sometimes dispute boundaries, the by-standers urge then on. This standers char flesh, the by-standers leave an unholy mess of discarded rubbish, the Ashes are also contested. This scene is not confined to Kwa Zulu Natal or Gauteng. It is international.''
Some nearby spectators tittered at my friend's remarks.
The covers came off. Play resumed.
We reached for two more cans of beer.
