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

Number Crunching

Jos Buttler, aged 23, England's replacement for Matt Prior:

8 matches, 15 innings, 1 N/O, 568 runs, HS of 100, average of 40.57, 1 fifty, 21 catches. 

Chris Read, the man who England abandoned in 2007, now aged 35, currently captaining the leading side in the County Championship:

12 matches, 18 innings, 4 N/O, 632 runs, HS of 96, average of 45.14, 41 catches.

I look forward to hearing arguments explaining why it would be wrong to leave Cook out for the rest of the series, replacing him with Read as captain, thereby also bringing in a proper keeper, rather than a makeshift one in Buttler... 

Sketch: Cricket Ireland V England

It seemed like it would be the most perfect match. Ireland, having

built and built their ODI side, nearly beat Pakistan and were a few runs away from

their first proper ODI series win. Now, just a couple of months later, they faced

an England team coming off an Ashes high, full of that all too

familiar nonchalance - 'it's just those amateur Irish Paddys'. So much

so, they'd filled the side with a second string 'Lions' team, with a

few added extras in from the first pick. I really believed Ireland

would have a chance. In fact, I still believe that if they did play a

series against England, Ireland would win at least one match.

Given this premise, you'd have thought I would've enjoyed the match,

Big changes: From this passion...

on the basis that it is only cricket, after all. But I found myself

taken to as high a level as any sporting contest has taken

me before. It was not just a simple game of 50 overs a side (43 overs,

if you count the fact England knocked them off with 7 to spare).

It was higher than that. It was a battle between Good and Evil. It wasn't

Bopara's amazing propensity suddenly to find run scoring/wicket taking

easy that enraged me. Nor was it Eoin Morgan's slightly patronising

decision to bring on Michael Carberry (who has bowled just 322

balls in his entire List A career). No, it was more than that. It was

that Ireland were being taken apart by Irishmen. Even worse - Irishmen

who were then giving smug Englishmen the excuse to laugh about it on

twitter.

As many will know (if only from my 'About me' page), I am an England

fan. I'm born English - I am far too passionate about England during

the Ashes (even the 06-07 series). But I am an Englishman who prefers

a cricket board that lacks Giles Clarke suave stickiness - Cricket

Ireland; an Englishman who is part Irish, and who would fail Norman

Tebbitt's cricket test. I am hopelessly romantic about Irish

cricket and a nation that lives, cricket-wise, at just about the right

distance behind England. I have fallen for the British tendency to back

the underdog.

So, I return to the dilemma of Good Vs Evil. Here am I, totally

appalled. If they are so bad, how come it took a Derry-born man to

take 4 Irish wickets and a Dublin-born man to score 124 runs and sink

the Irishmen? Would they have tipped the balance in Ireland's favour

had they been playing for their native country? Undoubtedly, yes. And

as the England 'masses', tweeted about how the match was 'a waste of

time' and 'totally pointless as England were always going to win', the

irony hit me. These were fully fledged England fans supporting the

best pick of Irishmen for easily beating the next best lot of

Irishmen. It is cricket's latest wave of colonisation. 

The system should stop players playing against their native country. This injustice

should not be allowed to continue. Morgan and Rankin may have decided to play

cricket for England (understandable, at least in the case of Morgan), but they cannot simply be allowed to sink their own country, especially when they are clearly not surplus to requirements.

Had they both played for Ireland, they could well have put their own

nation's chances of Test cricket a few years forward. Whilst Giles

Clarke may or may not make jokes at Irish expense, the fans certainly do,

However, England are simply delaying the time until (inevitably)

Ireland win a Test series against their old enemies. I for one, will

have my green jersey on that day, for it will be a victory for proper,

grass-roots cricket.

To this...

N.B- No doubt some smart aleck will make the point that Ireland had a

load of Aussies playing for them. Five killer points - 1) Irish

Cricket is currently building up the base from which to play

test-cricket and the best players should always be picked if available -

England have the advantage of being the oldest cricket nation in the

world. 2) Irish cricket's establishment (note my comment on the system

above) is already trying to lessen the influence and selection of

non-Irish players. Already. 3) When Ireland select Aussies, the

Aussies aren't moaning they can't select Trent Johnston, as he is

surplus to requirements - this is clearly never going to be the case

with England selecting Irish cricketers. 4) 7/8 of Ireland's

first-class county players are all Irish. The best Irish players are

Irish. Trott and Pietersen? 5) If Morgan and Rankin were playing for

Ireland, then maybe they could afford to play a fully Irish eleven.