Cricket in a new light.

I've not played cricket since September. I've not really thought a great deal about it since then. I've not even watched any cricket since then. On Thursday morning, I woke up to the news of Phil Hughes' death. I didn't see it coming, even though I'd read that he was in a critical condition. You just don't think that someone will actually lose their life playing cricket, a thing that has no association with death.

Since Thursday morning, I've spent a majority of my time watching cricket. I've been thinking about the one thing that me and Phil Hughes have in common: a deep love for the game. I don't even know if this is the correct response to his death. But even in the depths of winter, it suddenly seems so poignant that I should enjoy and experience, what is for me personally, beautiful: cricket. 

I've watched Brian Lara's 400 against England, an innings crafted, for the viewer, like a Rembrant painting. I do not apologise for hyperbole in this case.

I've ordered the Ashes 2013 DVD, so that I can re-watch Phil Hughes' final Test 50 at Trent Bridge, something which I had the exceptional privilege to watch first time in the flesh.

I've even watched the highlights of Brendon McCullum's 153 against Pakistan yesterday. Whilst this is an exceptional cricketing feat, I don't exaggerate when I say I really don't watch anything.

During this time, I've been thinking about the utter sadness that has surrounded Phil Hughes' death. It is a travesty that he has died, aged 25. I've also been contemplating how wonderful the cricket community is. It is truly "universal", in the sense that nearly every cricketing fan and player, from every single cricketing nation will have been touched by this in some way. It is a community in moments like this, thankfully, rare as they are. 

You might think that given mine and others sadness, the last thing I would want to watch would be cricket. Yet for some reason, through all of this, where I am finding hope in a young man's death, is through a sense of a mutual understanding with that person - through mine and his love of  cricket - as I recognise, perhaps for the first time properly, what a remarkable sport it is.

I don't think of all the misery but of the beauty that still remains. - Anne Frank