Couple of books & stuff

Moan.  When I watch TV it’s either sport or comedy for most of the time.  I’ve noticed the breaks are loaded with gambling ads whether bookmakers or online casinos.  I have nothing against gambling, not my thing but each to their own.  What bothers me is many of these ads imply its cool to gamble, makes you one of the lads.  This is bollocks, gambling isn’t cool it’s just another way to spend money.  The only thing anyone ever needs to know about gambling is in the long run, the house always wins.  Always.

India won the ODI series because they are world champions and England were pretty awful until the final game when the series had already been lost.  Was this just the wrong team to be able to challenge for a world cup or is it the right squad playing badly?

Finished reading “Norfolk mystery” by Ian Sansom.  An eccentric writer and his upper class assistant are trying to write a book but get side-tracked by a suicide.  Or is it a murder? There’s a bit of melancholy to begin with followed by plenty of head scratching then some chuckling and a couple of full blown laughs.  The story didn’t go far but the characters are great and I look forward to enjoying the madness further as the series unfolds.  Perhaps a future TV series with Colin Firth and Stephen Fry starring?

I followed this with Nasser Hussien’s autobiography “Playing with fire”.  I remember forgetting to read this when it was new on the shelves a decade ago.  Nasser was a cricketer I admired and as England captain he helped build the platform to England’s best decade of test cricket since I’ve followed the game.  I should have read it at the time because the passing years means the book has lost some of the controversy that may have arisen.  I love reading about old matches that I followed and these include Hussein’s entire career so I was a bit disappointed that I can remember the games better than Nasser!  It’s interesting to look at players Hussein picked as potential stars of the future.  Andrew Strauss and Jimmy Anderson proved him right.  Alex Tudor couldn’t stay fit and maybe Rob Key was the right bloke at the wrong time?  Nasser was a very good cricketer, an excellent captain and an honourable man.  His book is a good read a decade on.

For no good reason at all, here's Kiki the wonder rabbit.