Lazy Sunday Afternoon

Mahmood bowls to Babar at the start of the Pakistan innings in the second T20 at Headingley today.

If you are a cricket fan, you'll know what's going on. If not, here is the tea-towel version:

Cricket:  As explained to a foreigner ...

You have two sides, one out in the field and one in. Each person that's in the side that's in goes out, and when they are out they come in and the next person goes in until they are out. When they are all out, the side that is out comes in and the side that's been in goes out and tries to get those coming in, out. Sometimes you get people still in and not out. When someone goes out to go in, the people who are out try to get them out, and when they are out they go in and the next person in goes out and goes in. There are two people called umpires who stay out all the time and they decide when the people who are in are out. When both sides have been in and all the players have been out, and both sides have been out twice after all the people have been in, including those who are not out, that is the end of the game!

A Rare Cricketing Moment

Photo: Ariel J Friedlander

Some of you, I know, enjoy watching cricket. Not most of you, but I know some people who do. For those of you who claim it is difficult to understand, there's a famous sort-of-explanation of the rules, which makes baseball look simple IMO:

The Rules of Cricket:

* you have two sides, one out in the field, and one in.

* each player in the side that is in, goes out; and when they are out, they come in and the next player goes in until they are out.

* when they are all out, the side that is out comes in, and the side that's been in goes out and tries to get those who are coming in out.

* when both sides have been in and out, that is the end of the game.

The author of that is anonymous, which is a good thing. meanwhile, back to my photograph. I think it is a rare cricketing moment because Sir Isaac Vivian Alexander Richards is one of the greatest batsmen in the history of the sport and, I think, rarely clean bowled. So I am rather pleased to have taken a picture of him having been clean bowled. If you look carefully, you can see a flying bail just above Graham Gooch's head.

I looked up the details and I record them here for my statto persona:

2nd Test Match

England v. West Indies

at Lords Cricket Ground, 16th June 1988

2nd innings

IVA Richards (c)  b. Pringle         72

(W. Indies won by 134 runs)