"Here We Are Again"

I was thinking some more about monday's post, and the great effort by Ricky Ponting and Andrew Symonds.

Suddenly i noticed the similarity to the 2003 world cup match against Pakistan. Again, Australia had been in trouble, when Symonds joined Ponting at the crease. Whatever Ponting said to Symonds - it certainly did the trick. Symonds played better than he had ever before and deservedly won the man of the match award - and many new fans.

So when Ponting and Symonds combined again last Sunday, it may well have been a case of "We've got out of this before - we can get out of it again". Same thing goes in life. There are ups and there are downs. Good patches and bad patches. Somehow we always manage to get through the tough times, and on to better times. The trick is, when we go through another bad patch, to remember that "We've got out of this before - we can get out of it again".

3 Wickets for 10

Yesterday some friends and i gathered to watch the second final of the one-day cricket. Australia had lost the first match of the best-of-three series, so this was the last chance for the green-and-gold.

Second ball of the match, Gilchrist is out for no score. A few minutes later and Katich is lbw. Martyn raced to 8, but was out just as quickly. Three players out for just 10 runs and things are looking very bad. The tv people (as they do) continue to show replay after replay, and by now one starts to feel quite deflated.

Australia, the great team that they are, managed to even up the contest, and continued to take the ascendency. By the end of the innings Australia (somewhat amazingly) had posted 368 - its highest ever team total.

Now, as those early replays are aired again, they take on a whole new meaning. They are no longer reminders of a dire situation, they are the beginnings of a wonderful innings, which may not have taken place without those early setbacks.

I reckon the same goes in life. Bad things happen. Unhappy things happen. Stressful things happen. Sometimes it can feels like a lost cause - but don't lose heart! Hang in there, and there's a fair chance things will get much better. Then those setbacks become part of a great innings.

Fielding Names

One of the difficulties of explaining cricket to people is describing the location each of the fielding positions. Names like mid-off, mid-on, cover, point, cover-point, extra cover, square leg, fine leg, gully, mid-wicket ... what does it mean??

Of course, no sooner has my friend formed a mental picture of the situation, than a left-handed batsman comes into play. Experienced cricket fans know that (for a left hander) the fielding 'map' is reversed. But for people new to the game, it's difficult to believe that the guy who just ran 50 metres is still at fine leg, while the guy who remains unmoved has gone from forward square leg to cover-point.

All of this confusion comes from the fact that the whole thing is centred around the batsman. Each and every fielder can be described in terms of how far (and in what direction) he is from the face of the batsman.

In life, what do we centre our game around? Is it our job? Is it sport? Is it money? Is it our partner? Christians believe the answer is to centre it around Jesus - the guy with two main goals - love god and love others. Sounds good to me.

Boxing Day Memories

Each year in cricket, there is the Boxing Day test match. This summer, channel nine showed snippets of interviews with current players - each player was asked his most memorable boxing day moment.

There were usual answers from players who had done particularly well, or been involved in a great win, until they got to Matthew Hayden. In the last 5 boxing day matches, he has made 4 hundreds, and i expected one of those to be his answer.

Instead he named 1996 against the West Indies. New to the team, he had not scored many runs, and was "under the pump" to stay in the side.

He was bowled for nought and still says he can hear the ball knocking the off stump. Shortly after he was dropped from the team, and it would be three long years before he returned.

Sometimes life can be incrediby harsh (even harsher than being bowled for nought). I guess the key is to get through the bad times and appreciate the good ones. As Hayden says about his tough times, "that's made all the special happy times so much more special".

Electrical Tape

The touch football team that i am in, plays in a social competition. I'm sure that expression qualifies as an oxymoron. I seems like a contradiction in terms to have something that is social (ie. enjoying the company of others) and yet a competition (ie. trying to defeat others).

As we continue to be both social and competitive, the challenge is to not be over-competitive at the expense of the social aspect (we're not playing for sheep stations) and i manage this quite well. As the opposition reaches double figures (and our team is still on zero) suddenly it's very easy to believe that the score is not important.

But just the other week, a remarkable thing happened - we were winning a game! During this strange circumstance, the referee told one of the players on the other team to leave the field as his playing shirt was un-numbered (it's the rules). Playing on the wing, I heard one of our subs say to the player "I've got some tape in the car" (a shirt number made out of electrical tape is permissible).

While i didn't say anything, i remember thinking "Shut up, Chris! We're in with a chance of winning here!". Of course, i later regained my perspective. Still don't know if i would have gone and got the guy some tape (if i was in Chris's position) but i hope i would have. One thing i do know is that it's a lot harder to not care about winning when you actually have a chance to.

A Bonus Point

Last night i arrived home to see the last 20 overs of the cricket on tv. The batting team was doing quite well, and were headed for a comfortable victory. So comfortable in fact, that they were a chance for a 'bonus point' - an extra competition point awarded to a team who wins by more than a set margin.

With the possibility that an extra point could come in handy later in the competition, the batting team accelerated their efforts, but in doing so several players got out in quick succession. It started to look as if they would do the unthinkable, and 'snatch defeat from the jaws of victory' - losing the match and 4 competition points - all for the sake of this 'bonus point'.

How does this happen? We set out for what's important (like winning a cricket match) but we get distracted. Greed takes over. We want more! And sometimes it costs us the thing we originally wanted.

Fortunately the batting side realised this and settled for an 'ordinary' win. They focussed on what was important, and achieved it. Let's hope we can do the same.