Sport is a curious thing. For those who love it, it provides all the exhilaration one requires from life. Remember Bill Shankley's mantra, about football being more important than life and death? If you empathise with that quote, you will understand why people love watching and participating in sport so much.
And as professional sport has reached such elite standards over the past 50 years or so, so the performers of the same have grown in stature, to the almost gladiatorial standing they occupy in society today.
With that we get heroes, and the odd villain as well to keep things interesting, and that leads us nicely into one Henry Christopher Gayle, for whom there will be people wishing to categorise him as both, if truth be told.
Gayle was dropped from the West Indies squad a year and a half ago after falling out with coach Otis Gibson on matters such as Gayle's unwavering insistence on playing as much freelance Twenty20 cricket as he could shake a large, willow stick at.
The Jamaican returned to the West Indies side at the Oval yesterday and promptly filled his boots - on a decent batting track it has to be said - hitting 5 sixes in just 11 deliveries en route to a 44 ball half century against England in the second One Day International of the series.
Gayle is frequently criticised for prioritising T20 franchises ahead of his national side but at the end of the day, its Gayle's decision which direction his career takes. And you can't just criticise Gayle for his decision; you also have to question the ICC and the international cricket boards around the world who continue to insist upon scheduling international series which overlap the IPL.
Surely a world where international cricket and franchise T20 tournaments co-exist alongside each other would benefit us all? Not just fans and players, but cricket boards too, who feasibly would then have their best players available more often?
Anyway, thats a discussion for another day. At the end of the day, Chris Gayle is pure Box Office, and his bludgeoning presence at the Kia Oval yesterday morning was the perfect lift on what was a hugely sombre mood at Surrey HQ following the tragic loss of young Tom Maynard in a London Underground accident barely 24 hours earlier.
What the youngsters family must be going through right now doesn't bare thinking about, and his loss has had a profound affect on the cricket community the world over.
When Gayle batted yesterday morning however, for a few minutes at least, we were able to remember the reason we all love cricket so much, because at its best and in its purest form, sport should just exhilarate and excite us.
Maynard will never play on the stage he was so obviously destined for before tragedy struck on Monday morning, and his loss should make us all take stock and question what is important in life.
Cricket is just a game, sure, but it is an escape for people, it's a way of life and a passion that runs through peoples veins.
Surely the most important thing about life, let alone cricket, is to enjoy what precious time we have in this world, and if we live by that statement then the fact that Gayle, the best Twenty20 batsman in the world (unofficially and in TGD's opinion) has missed so much international cricket because of an on-going despute with his employers is a tragic loss to the game.
And of course the irony of Gayle returning to the West Indies side for this series is that his great pal and England's own batting superstar, Kevin Pietersen, doesn't line up against him after protracted discussions between the player and the ECB resulted in KP walking away from all international limited overs cricket.
We have talked about the loss of KP from England's limited overs sides on The Golden Duck previously, and whilst his departure presents new opportunities for younger players to get into the side, surely it's better for the game for the best players to be playing it for as long as they are fit, willing and able?
Rules are rules and contracts are contracts, but sometimes cricket is its own worst enemy.
The tragedy of Maynard should spur crickets administrators to look at the game we all love and ensure we all get the most out it that we can, be it players playing T20 and not One Day cricket or be it players playing in the IPL and full international schedules that run at separate periods in a global cricketing schedule.
This weeks events have shown us all that life is way too short and for me, I would rather see crickets gladiators playing in as many competitive matches as possible, rather than tying them all up in red tape.
No comments:
Post a Comment