It's a miracle

I say!

Doviko has been practicing his silver service table waiting for the last couple of weeks. Well, I say! Last night when he was serving up our dinner, he'd no sooner spooned some mushy peas onto my plate and was about to serve the carrots before going on to the crumbed chambo and fries when there was an almighty crash of thunder and lightening outside. It gave him such a fright that the carrots went flying up in the air.

But then, and here's the extraordinary thing, when I looked down at my plate, this is what I saw:


The carrots had arranged themselves in the perfect formation of a set of stumps!

The other servants insisted on seeing the arrangment, and reckoned that it was a miracle on a par with the appearance of the Holy Mother in various churches.

I was having none of that. Last thing we want is thousands of pilgrims outside the door wanting to see miracle carrots. So I insisted the rest of the meal was served, and then proceeded to eat it.

MM III

Cricket and work

I say!

As you all know, there's essentially three kinds of international cricket. Tests, one dayers, and nowadays Twenty20. Work is similar.

Test cricket lasts five days, and the players say it takes a lot out of them, and that they don't get paid enough. One dayers are self evident, and the players get paid more for doing less. Twenty20 lasts only 4 hours, is very intense, and the players sometimes get paid a small fortune. Some players only seem to play in the Twenty20 version.

Well, now, work should be the same, especially relating to the shortest form of the game.

Thanks to the Protestant work ethic, there are many people who want to work hard for at least five days a week, and many of them don't get paid much.

On the other hand, some people, for example company directors, work for a day a week and get paid a lot of money.

What we need to do is create more of a work equivalent of the Twenty20 match. Some chosen people could work for only 4 hours a week and get paid a small fortune for their efforts. Perhaps Hotboy could be one of these chosen.

Not only would this give people something to aspire to, but it would also solve the current financial problems. Those who work for five days a week obviously don't have the time to spend much money, and this helps no-one.

However, in my proposed new world, those who work 4 hours a week and get paid a fortune will have lots of time to spend all their money, and the shops, manufacturers and producers will all benefit.

I say! Wouldn't it be wonderful if work mirrored cricket?

MM III

The real challenge

I say!

Some people think that cricket is all about bat, ball and wickets. Well, it is! Most of the time anyway, but sometimes it's just about ball and wickets.



Cricket can also help with maths.

MM III

What is cricket?

I say!

Well, it couldn't be clearer than this.

MM III

Dalai Lama and cricket

I say!

Here's an interesting snap, showing His Holiness and some cricketers from the IPL.

MM III

What a wonderful book

I say!

A great shame that Sir Alec didn't make his century.

I've been reading 'Not dark yet' by Mike Harfield. Wonderful book, all about cricket. It contains this very important fact:

A distinction was always made between amateur players (Gentlemen), and professional players (Players). Up until 1962, scorecards at Lords always showed amateurs with their initials before their surname and professionals with their initials after their surnames. A very significant difference, obviously.

Once, when Freddy Titmus, who later lost four toes in a boating acccident in Barbados, was walking out to the wicket to bat, an announcement over the loudspeaker was made apologising for an error on the printed scorecard. The announcement was " 'F.J. Titmus' should read 'Titmus F.J.' "

Stickers for detail, so they were, in those days. Ah yes - those were the days.

MM III

Cricketing Journeys

I say!

I expect that, like me, you will want to spend a few hours investigating this informative website entitled Cricketing Journeys to and from Australia. There's even a snap of The Don's bat.

MM III