The Lord’s Test between England and India prompted comparisons to the 2005 Ashes-like vibe, but even as the country was soaking in the cricket summer that has gotten mighty exciting, an editorial in a newspaper drew out some passionate responses about what went down at the iconic stadium.
‘In sport, Americans value brevity, drama, a guaranteed resolution. Draws are anathema and ways must be found to avoid them. Two enterprising journalists once took Groucho Marx to an MCC game at Lord’s and he pronounced it “a wonderful cure for insomnia”’ the Guardian wrote.
There was further shade thrown when George Bernard Shaw was quoted in the editorial as saying: “The English are not a very spiritual people, so they invented cricket to give them some idea of eternity.”
However, letters to the editor, trickled in challenging the first line. One such, by Edward Collier of Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, narrated how an American lady was completely taken in bybthe sport. “I took an American guest – it was her first cricket match – to Lord’s for the third day of the recent Test match between England and India. In terms of the kind of “excitement” that is the hallmark of T20 and the ghastly Hundred (explosive batting, athletic fielding), the day was somewhat lacking. At times, play was slow, almost becalmed,” he wrote. “However, at the end of the day she pronounced that it had been one of her favourite sporting occasions, and despite leaving England the next day, she practically begged me to consider taking her again as a guest next year,” he continued.
“It turns out that generalising about a country or its people isn’t quite the slam dunk (to borrow a phrase from one of her favourite sports) that your editorial seems to think it is,” he chastised.
The Guardian in its letters section balanced it a tad, by publishing David Farrelly of Newport, Oregon, originally from Lamcashire, who reserved the twist in the tale for the last few lines.
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“I have an American wife and we live in Newport, Oregon. (As a too-early aside, one of the few places much rainier than the Rossendale Valley from where I hark.) Your opening sentence summed it up,” he wrote.
“My wife has become a fan of cricket and understands the rules better than I – to the point of knowing that it’s a five-point penalty if a ball hits a helmet laid on the ground.” So far, so fine.
“Nevertheless,” Farrelly continued, “she could not understand the fascination of the last couple of sessions at Lord’s and departed to the kitchen where she was making baguettes, her comment being that watching yeast rise is more exciting (not that the yeast itself rises).”
The gentleman himself, though, had stayed smitten and even wept watching Mohammed Siraj sink to the ground. “By contrast, I was enthralled and on the point of tears when it was over, watching Mohammed Siraj being consoled. This was one for Wisden. David Farrelly
Newport, Oregon,” he wrote.
