Yes, shame on me and all that, but I am watching cricket on Sky TV, a TV station which is 39% owned by Rupert Murdoch. I haven’t watched much cricket on TV for a few years now or anywhere else for that matter, not because I don’t like it but since it disappeared from terrestrial TV I have lost interest. Until tonight.
Sky is showing a T20 match between England and Pakistan and it’s incredibly exciting. The purists will probably hate it because, I suppose, T20 is impure, but what an atmosphere. Unlike the test series, at least what little I saw of it, the crowd has a substantial Pakistani contingent. And they are a very loud contingent, too. I expect Lord Norman Tebbit would hate this, the Pakistan fans failing his cricket “test”, but why shouldn’t the Pakistanis support their own team? I have friends who live in England but come from different parts of the world. They often support the teams of their birth or of their parents. I can’t see a problem.
It reminds me of how cricket used to be a few decades ago, when overseas teams had large followings. They would largely be Britains of Indian, Pakistani and West Indian extraction and, like in football, the away following would create an atmosphere. Whether or not you are a purist, how could you not enjoy this noise?
There is but one T20 game this season between these two sides, which is surely bonkers. Not all of us have the attention span to watch a five day test and most of the ones who have are English these days. Why are there not five T20 games, in London, Birmingham and Leeds and say Bristol as well as Manchester? I think you would build better community relations than by any number of government committees.
And, whilst I am at it, why don’t we have a franchise system for the national T20 tournament (only)? Or temporarily rename the county clubs to city names? How much fun would it for Bristol to play Somerset, or Leeds v Manchester? In terms of genuine cricket fans, this is tantamount to treason, but – hey! – it works pretty well everywhere else. Imagine how much money the game could make, especially of they put it on terrestrial telly?
I am overexcited, I know, because Pakistan are smashing England in England and a substantial part of the crowd is loving it. I’d rather we won, but sod it: what great fun.
I really hope they’re watching this in Pakistan. They’ll be loving it even more than me.
