One of the oddest things in my life was getting hooked on cricket … in Moscow.
While I was sports editor at the Moscow Times, my job was largely to summarize the world’s sports news into a page and a half or two. Given that Reuters regularly produced 300 inches on a cricket test match, the task of turning it into a coherent brief was beyond me. Fortunately, one of the editors, Robin Lodge, was a Brit who was passionate about the sport. From him I finally learned enough about the world of googlies, yorkers, off-spinners and mid offs to a) survive when he wasn’t around and b) develop an interest in the sport.
It bemuses my staff when I start rambling on about England declaring to leave India a target of 485 or the difference between a duck and a golden duck. But I’m not sure I’m interested enough to watch a whole day’s play, let alone five of them.
thistownvt 