A busy weekend of sport and other events. I went to a dinner in Cambridge on Friday night to hear the former Cabinet Secretary, Lord Wilson, give a talk on what it's like to run No.10 Downing Street while trying to aid, assist, and serve three different Prime Ministers - Margaret Thatcher, John Major, and Tony Blair. Despite the diplomatic tone Lord Wilson used throughout the speech and question time, he did suggest that he and Alastair Campbell hadn't always seen eye to eye on everything.
On Saturday, I watched the British Lions scrape home against Western Province, though to be fair, they scored three tries to one, so it should be a fascinating opening test next Saturday when the full Lions team will be on the pitch for the first time.
Mary hosted a garden party for St Anne's College, Oxford (her old college) on Sunday afternoon, from which I managed to escape on the grounds that I'd been invited to watch England v India in the Twenty20 at Lord's. Another fascinating day's cricket especially for a fan like me, because in my box were Sachin Tendulkar, Clive Lloyd, Ravi Shastri, and Wasim Akram. Whenever one looks back on a match, it's often to be reminded of one particular incident - a dropped catch, a run-out that shouldn't have taken place, an umpiring decision that turns out to be ill-judged - and I can't help remembering that that great bowler Harbhajan Singh once bowled a wide in the last over that went for 4 runs, adding five to what looked like a meagre England total. It's cruel to point out that we won that match by 3 runs, and that single ball was the difference between the two teams. Nevertheless, it was a wonderful evening's cricket, and today's match against the West Indies could go either way. A lot will depend on whether Mr Gayle decides to turn up. More of that tomorrow.
On Saturday, I watched the British Lions scrape home against Western Province, though to be fair, they scored three tries to one, so it should be a fascinating opening test next Saturday when the full Lions team will be on the pitch for the first time.
Mary hosted a garden party for St Anne's College, Oxford (her old college) on Sunday afternoon, from which I managed to escape on the grounds that I'd been invited to watch England v India in the Twenty20 at Lord's. Another fascinating day's cricket especially for a fan like me, because in my box were Sachin Tendulkar, Clive Lloyd, Ravi Shastri, and Wasim Akram. Whenever one looks back on a match, it's often to be reminded of one particular incident - a dropped catch, a run-out that shouldn't have taken place, an umpiring decision that turns out to be ill-judged - and I can't help remembering that that great bowler Harbhajan Singh once bowled a wide in the last over that went for 4 runs, adding five to what looked like a meagre England total. It's cruel to point out that we won that match by 3 runs, and that single ball was the difference between the two teams. Nevertheless, it was a wonderful evening's cricket, and today's match against the West Indies could go either way. A lot will depend on whether Mr Gayle decides to turn up. More of that tomorrow.
4 Comments:
Sir Jeffery,
Probably Harjinder Singh should read Harbhajan Singh....
Anonymous - thank you! My mistake...Jeffrey's PA.
dear mr archer
fortunately, for harbhajan singh,many cricket crazy indiand do not read your blog
you must have already seen that the effigy of mr m s dhoni has been burnt
and police force has increased the security around mr dhonis new house, under construction, as well as the present one where his parents dwell
if what you have written becomes public in india
even god can not save harbhajan
in india the demi gods of cricket reach the zenith and nadir seven times in a year
Dear Jeff,
I think the loss is because of the unaggressive attitude of the indian cricketers...they lacked the conviction and commitment towards putting on a fight...the form and performance of the indian cricket team has always been very erratic since the late 1990's...by the way I did not see you in the box I saw Sachin and Ravi...next time pl be seated next to them ;-)
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