Where does time go?
Last time I wrote on here England had just scraped a draw in New
Zealand, through a combination of skill and luck. NZ had the better of the tour but in the end
weren’t good enough to beat England. On
the other hand, England underperformed in a series we all expected them to win
comfortably. For England Matt Prior was
the star with both bat and gloves. Nick
Compton done well to cement his place with two centuries and Trotty had a good
tour. The other batsmen underperformed;
Cook had a below par series, Bell is becoming inconsistent and Root was brought
back down to earth. England’s bowlers
performed well on unhelpful pitches but didn’t have the impact we
expected. Monty in particular struggled
at times.
Next up for England in a couple of weeks is two home matches
against the Kiwi’s again and once again I expect us to win. They won’t under estimate NZ at all this time
and will know they are facing some young, talented players. McCullum captained the side well and his
bowlers didn’t let him down, Boult in particular impressed. Fulton did well with the bat at home but I
can’t see him doing much in English conditions.
Rutherford looked an exciting player and Williamson looks a very good
player. However if England perform
anywhere near their best they will win.
While England were struggling Australia were getting well
and truly battered in India. They
suffered woeful on field results and had factions within the squad off the
pitch. All very amusing for an English
cricket fan but we know they can’t possibly be that bad later this summer.
Chris Gayle recently broke T20 records with a typically aggressive 175. The highlights were fun to watch but hey, it's only IPL!
Some books…
“The Hundred year old
man who climbed out of the window and disappeared” has to be one of the
longest book titles ever. Written by
Jonas Jonasson and set mostly in his native Sweden it tells the story of what
happens to the centurion Allan Karlson when he steps out of his window to
escape his hundredth birthday party.
During his disappearance Allan meets a host of lawless people and has a
hilarious adventure involving a suitcase full of cash and a drug gang amongst
many other things. The book also flashes
back to the past and charts Allan’s remarkable life and his hitherto unknown
influence on the major acts of twentieth century history. It’s a really funny and enjoyable read but
does run out of steam a little towards the end.
“Brave New World”
was written by Aldous Huxley in 1932 and gives a prophecy of the world six
hundred years from now. God has been
replaced by “Our Ford”, Henry Ford no less, the inventor of the production
line. The world is now at a consistent
state peace and contentment populated by genetically modified races formed into
a Caste system. People are no longer
born but grown in bottles and conditioned (brain washed?) to be happy. When
times get a little tough there’s the state controlled drug, “Soma”, issued for
free. Not everyone is happy in this
utopia and when two such characters venture to a “Reservation” to see “savages”
who are actually born from mothers then the real hero of the story is
found. This book is often compared to “1984”
and actually pre-dates it but is a much easier read than George Orwell’s
masterpiece. Whether Huxley’s vision of
the future is any more or less palatable than 1984 is debateable but it’s far
less terrifying and perhaps suffers in comparison because of this?
No comments:
Post a Comment