Priorities right

But in the end players go home, spectators do too, and we switch off our TV sets and go to bed; upset sometimes, disillusioned briefly, too, but we go home and we rise another day and we wait for the next game. Without sport we would be poorer, woefully poor, but in the hierarchy of needs it must cede place to safety, to comfort, to relief; to the thought that you will see your child the next morning. It must never be different for some others are not so lucky. One day we may not be too, but till then our priorities must be in the right order. Sport should be played in an atmosphere of joy. You cannot make a painter paint with a gun to his head.

Our reputation has been dented. Visitors to our shores have been shot brazenly and our people too in trying to defend them. Sadly we are creatures of the environment we live in. If there is a drought in the jungle even the lion must leave. So too must we accept the times and the doctrines that surround us. As we benefit so must we pay.

What a pity because we are largely a hospitable people. We support our team and occasionally scream at the opposition; we challenge their way of living sometimes but we bestow great love and sometimes great luxury on them. Hopefully this too shall pass.

And as England head back they will be relieved and contemplative. They didn’t play great cricket, certainly not as good as they can. If they look back dispassionately, they will realise they were outplayed in the big moments. They did threaten occasionally but seemed to accept too quickly that the going would be tough. They did themselves injustice. That is why I am so keen to see them play in the Tests. Hopefully things would have changed by then; the sea-breeze would have taken this stench away and the Brabourne Stadium, such a wonderful home for cricket, will be packed and cheering.

... contd.