Inner Tension

Next morning I received an angry letter from Ricky Ponting.

Dear madam, (he wrote)

I could not let your remarks on the fair game of cricket go unchallenged. You claim to have been listening to the radio last weekend, and to have heard two commentators agreeing that cricket thrives on inattention.

I think, madam, that you will find, should you obtain a transcript of the broadcast, that the words they used were inner tension.

I will concede the two expressions sound identical. However it should not take much thought to work out which was meant.

The wonderful game of cricket thrives on inner tension at many levels. There is inner tension between the players in the opposing teams, obviously, but also between the players in the same team. There is inner tension too in their tactics and even in the inexorable ticking of the clock towards stumps at the end of play.

I trust that after reading this you will concede that I am right. I am the captain of the team after all and I believe I should know. We are as you have noted doing rather badly in your home town of Adelaide. The weather here is also unpleasantly hot. I should hate to think that you are encouraging the locals not to attend by spreading the erroneous idea that cricket will thrive if they ignore it.

Yours without prejudice,

Ricky Ponting ( Captain ).


I searched inside the envelope. But he had not thought to enclose any free tickets.