The Mighty Ottakar’s – Cricket is Life

I went on my annual pilgrimage to the Cheltenham Cricket Festival at the weekend. Bliss. There really is no better place to be.

And as my beloved Gloucestershire were in the process of being royally decimated, I sat there, sun-kissed, a bit pissed, contemplating. Thinking about what makes cricket such a wonderful game.

That it is a process. That little, if anything is revealed in an instant.

That cricket is a succession of beautiful moments each vital, yet rarely defining. None able to reveal or explain the whole match.

That cricket is the sum of its glorious parts over time. That as well as great skill, bravery and intelligence it needs that precious time. Time to unfold, to become. Time to be greater than each discreet moment. That the unfolding story commands patience, deserves close attention but demands neither. That cricket is a heroic endeavour full of heroes.

To paraphrase Daniel Levis: “It has the power to project the spectator into the story. To create a subtle shift in self image at the same time respecting and acknowledging intelligence and empowering people to draw their own pleasure.”

And then I cast my mind back to Daniel Levis and Drayton Bird, Lawrence Bernstein and MojoLife from Manchester talking about great copywriting being great storytelling . That cricket is like great storytelling is like great copywriting, is life.

And then I thought maybe I was slipping into pretentious nonsense.

So I bought another pint, shouted Glaaaaaaaaaaster and got over myself.

It didn’t help. We lost by 10 wickets with 10 overs to spare.