Inattention

The cricket is on in Adelaide this weekend. Australia is playing England for the Ashes. I don't think we are doing all that well, not that I have paid it much attention.

You may be surprised to know that it is good for cricket, to pay it scant attention. I certainly would not have thought so, but for something I heard on the radio last week.

It was Sunday morning and I had just dropped my daughter off at her house. I was driving home up Greenhill Road and I turned the radio on. Two Englishmen were commenting on the cricket. What cricket was it? I don't know. Maybe it was the first test or something. Last Sunday it was. Look it up yourself if you don't know.

They were chatting in between balls, the cricket must have been quite boring at that point. One said, " I hear they might have a hung parliament in Victoria. Is it just me or is it foolish to have an even number of seats? "

I began to pay attention. I wished to hear what the other one would reply. How rude, I thought, for Englishmen to voice an opinion on this matter.

The other one replied by saying " Oh! He's bowled him!" or something to that effect. This is why I pay cricket little attention.

They continued talking in a desultory fashion about cricket. They spoke of things I have no memory of at all.

Perhaps you wonder why I continued listening to the cricket, given that I had no interest. It is because these days I always have the radio tuned to local ABC Radio 891. It is a sort of penance and the bad comes with the good.

So, I was not listening intently to the cricket conversation, but I believe it was about the interaction of the players, or the teams. And then my ears pricked up. "Well, cricket thrives on inattention," said the commentator. And the other one agreed.

Can it be true? I asked myself. How does that work? Still I suppose the cricket experts must know best.