The Ashes

 

I just love them. The oldest, the grandest test cricket rubber of them all. It's a pity I can't watch them live this time around, what with being in the Baseball country and all. So, I guess, it'll just have to be Cricinfo and BBC radio for the live feeds and DesiTorrents for the highlights. Just as well. I can't see myself getting any work done otherwise. Anyhow, since the first test ended, I have been anxiously waiting for Edgbaston, starting the 4th of August. I have a wager on England for these Ashes. Yeah that's right, you can unglue your eybrows from the top of your forehead now. Let me explain. I am a huge Aussie fan, my blog name suggests that, I should hope. But to my mind, the game has to start doing well elsewhere in the world ( the subcontinent does not count, where mindless prostitution of the game continues in the form of senseless ODI series at fart of a fart named Dalmiya). And this has to happen in the next couple of years, before Australia loses its champions and becomes a mortal, even ordinary, side. There needs to be another Champion team just waiting to take over, waiting to excite, waiting to inspire its young to take up the game. WI are totally past it. India and Pak can alternate between the sublime and the ordinary more frequently than any other side in the world. SL are, well, just Murali, esentially. SA, dunno if they will be able to play any sort of exciting cricket. Anycase, with the whole affirmative action shit happening, it will take some time . That leaves the Poms. They look the most exciting and talented young unit after the Aussies. Freddie, Harmison, Vaughan, Trescothick make for good cricket viewing. KP has the biggest champion of them all, the flawed genius of Warnie to mentor him , and hopefully, he will be a big draw. What I am getting to is, eventually, this English side has the potential to re-establish cricket as a top sport in England and hopefully attract younger kids towards it. With cricket in the UK now available only on cable TV, this becomes all the more significant. A victory against the Old Enemy will certainly help, a defeat may be catastrophic to the future of the game there.
But I, being such a die-hard Aus cricket fan will not find it in my heart to support the Poms unless there is a little incentive involved (no, the nobility of the cause ain't enuff). Incentive translating to a 12 pack of Heineken.

Let the battle resume.