TEN REASONS WHY I LOVE CRICKET (IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER)
1) I love Barbados
2) Monty Panesar
When he's about to bowl his face is a scrunched up in studious concentration. But when he bowls 'em out....
3) The restrained use of colour
White whites on a green pitch with a complimentary dash of red
4) The sound
I'm not talking about the pat of leather on willow followed by a gentle ripple of applause. I mean the Caribbean cacophony of soca and reggae competing against the clamour or horns, bugles and drums and grown men shouting.
5) The maths
If you're the kind of person that likes Sodoku puzzles you can entertain that sad part of your brain with sums involving the number of runs needed divided by the number of overs etc
6) The bodies
Unlike rugby players, cricketers' bodies tend to be tall and elegant.
7) My two-year-old loves it
"Mummy, I'm watching cricket," he says. I find this fascinating. What is he so enthralled by the sight of Jerome Taylor massacring the England batsmen when he could be watching Chuggington?
8) It can last five days
When you go to bed thinking about a match and it's still there when you wake up the next morning, it becomes part of your life in a way that something which is over and done with in 90 minutes does not.
9) The technicalities
It makes me sad when people are put off cricket because they don't understand the finer details. I don't know about donkey drop and fast leg theory either, but I'm glad there is a technical side to the game. It makes me feel it has depth, that there will always be more for me to learn.
10) Anything could happen
The game is teaching me to get out of the habit of thinking that I know how things are going to end. It constantly twists and turns and surprises. Cricket is a metaphor of life.

PS - Bye bye for now. I won't be blogging for another couple of weeks. Guess where I'm going?