What is it about cricket that engenders such strong opinions?

No.  What is it about sport that engenders such strong opinions, I suppose?

In the case of cricket, I suspect that one of the major drawcards is that it is a game which rewards concentrating on good technique, and although a player with a good “eye for the ball” can dominate a match, that isn’t everything.  So a person with less talent but a drive to succeed can also prosper.  Practice is rewarded perhaps more than in most sports (a bold statement, that).

Case in point.  I scored 25 in our cricket match today, and am unreasonably proud of my achievement!  At 61 years old, my reflexes are slow.  Given my double vision, I’m very unlikely to be able to rely on my good eye for the ball, either.  On the other hand, I can try to bat with a technically good approach, and I bat with a fierce concentration.  Today’s innings was my reward.

The opening bowlers were fast, and swung the balls prodigiously.  As a left-handed batsman, though, the outswinger (to me) was less threatening, and I was content to leave the ones alone which clearly posed no threat to my wicket.  On a very hot day, their fastest bowler was clearly tired even in his third of fourth over.  A better batsman than I would have taken him apart.  However I waited it out, and in due course the second-string bowlers came on, and after a while I could score more freely.  For me, this is my (probably only) strength – by playing straight and concentrating carefully I hope to “see off” the frontline bowlers.

Like the bowlers, though, I got tired.  Eventually I was out in a way which gave me a sort of satisfaction also.  I tried to defend a lifting delivery, and the ball just “feathered” my glove on the way through to being caught by the wicketkeeper.  I “walked” off without even looking at the umpire.  He told me later that he hadn’t heard the ball-glove contact and couldn’t have given me out – so in a way which is hard to explain, I am actually quite proud of the fact that I simply walked off.

So to go back to my original question: cricket can be played by older men than many other sports, and they can take delight in paying the game by a set of rules and values which give satisfaction in themselves.  My team won today, but that’s sometimes not the point – we took part in a ritual on a weekend afternoon which gave pleasure in itself.

25 is my highest score for 30 years.