Wednesday, June 24, 2009

A new phenomena took over while I was out of New Zealand and wandering ...

Twenty/20 cricket.

Martin, the ICC's man in Belgium, first talked of it when we were driving to and from Flanders Fields, then yesterday Pakistan won the world cup.

Yesterday it so happened that I was travelling between Brussels and Antwerp with a Pakistani who has lived in Denmark these last 40 years. He told me of Pakistan's win in the Twenty/20 World Cup.

I stopped at the night shop on the way home after a long day at the office, picking up an ice cream.

I had to congratulate our Pakistani shop owner there too.

New Zealand didn't do so well in the competition and suddenly there I was, running into every person from Pakistan I knew ...

Talking of cricket makes me nostalgic for the childhood sounds of a good match drifting out from a transistor radio on a hot sunny day or the roar of my sports-mad dad, mum and brothers as they followed some cricket match on the television.

A cricket match over in 3 and a half hours ... I never imagined that possible.

2 comments:

Inge said...

For foreigners like me Twenty/20 is a blessing! I never understood how so many people all over the world can sit through days of cricket... I hope you get to come to NZ soon, although at the moment the chilly Wellington winter makes me want to trade places with you. Enjoy the sun while you can :-).

Di Mackey said...

The sun, oh Inge we seem to be having a lovely summer so far. You can imagine, I'm scared of mentioning anything about it in case I break it ;)

As usual, I hope to fly in next year but it's been 5 years now ...