This morning, Gideon Haigh wrote a piece in ‘The Australian’ entitled ‘Farewell to Cricket. Will we meet again?’
His club, ‘The Yarras’ are actually playing today in The A Grade Final of their competition. He plays in the C Grade who aren’t contesting the finals. Nevertheless, he’s filled with excited anticipation.
“Even when you’re not playing yourself, it’s brilliant to partake of the feeling around a club readying itself for a final. There’s the culmination of effort, the tang of anticipation, the preparing for giving all in the knowledge that you won’t be playing again for a while.”
That’s exactly what I was expecting to feel this morning. After a season’s involvement in school cricket (and a Premiership to savour!) and a consequent inability to be at the University grounds on the weekends, I was looking so much forward, freed from other obligations, to watching the club, over the next three weeks, marching towards grand finals, premierships. Exactly ten years ago, this weekend, I finally finished my Grade career. Since then, I’ve had wonderful experiences watching good cricket, good cricketers, especially the University players, from under the trees.
Phil Logan wrote a few weeks ago in some wonderment. Our former players, while still interested, still following our current teams, were just not coming down in numbers on Saturdays.
Perhaps this pandemic will have unforeseen consequences?
When order is inevitably restored, when cricketers begin to take the field again, when games are once more played and lost and won, then we’ll cherish the experience and turn up to watch, to enjoy, to exult. What is now lost and missed will be then regained.
James Rodgers