Wales

Tonight, a young man from New South Wales will step on to a cricket field in old South Wales. Phillip Hughes, age twenty, son of a banana farmer, will open the batting for his country in international sport’s most enduring contest, Ashes cricket.

Almost a dozen cricket fans gather in England.

He’s dreamt of this moment for much of his young life. One can write with some confidence that he hasn’t dreamt of playing his first Ashes Test at Sophia Gardens, rather at Lords or Headingley or Old Trafford.

The opening match of the 2009 series will be the first Ashes Test played on neutral soil. That is, it will take place neither in England nor Australia, but in a foreign country, Wales.

The first Welshman to captain England at Test cricket, Tony Lewis, wrote of Sophia Gardens, ‘a day watching there when the prevailing wind blows is like a week at sea’.

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  • Luke Whitington says:

    02:35pm | 17/07/09

    As you rightly point out, the major problem is restricted TV access. I believe that is also the case in much of the the West Indies. While watching live cricket is unbeatable, the success of the sport relies on it being broadcast. I watch 5 days of Test cricket every… Read more »

  • Jenny says:

    09:21pm | 09/07/09

    PS For contemporary reflections on ‘Victorian gentleman of leisure’ and cricket - can I refer you to the first of Seigfried Sasson’s 3 volume memoir - “Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man”. I think its the sort of thing your readers may enjoy. Read more »

 

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