Dreadlock Holiday

The Rainbow Nation are World Test Champions! Their first ever ICC tournament win. I was unable to watch the first couple of days of the action, so missed the top-tier bowling displays from Australia’s legendary quartet and South Africa’s future hall-of-famer Rabada. Though I did catch most of Markram and Bavuma’s match-winning partnership on Friday morning. And saw every single being cheered as the batters rotated strike methodically towards a record run chase early Saturday.

The best team to never have won a global event no more, South Africa finally crossed the line in a final and in doing so notched a victory for cricket. A sport shambolically led by incompetent authorities that nonetheless produces thrilling contests despite constantly shooting itself in the foot. Just explaining the scope of international cricket and attempting to compare its formats, tournaments and politics to outsiders by contrasting it with other sports feels so often an exercise in futility. Nothing about it makes any sense. Anyway, kudos Proteas, thank the stars you beat the Aussies.

Which brings us to 10cc and their 1978 hit “Dreadlock Holiday”. I had the playlist going before the start of proceedings on Saturday to block out the silence and keep the tinnitus at bay, and the shuffle landed on this track just as the live feed began. The coincidental timing could not have been better. I kept the television muted and let the song play out. I had forgotten how sketchy the lyrics were; a bunch of white Mancunian guys singing about their experiences in the Caribbean will definitely have some tone-deaf moments. Through reggae no less. But this has been litigated over nearly five decades. No further comment here.

It is just that: I don’t like cricket. Oh no… I love it!

Too bad I can only watch it on weekends, given the time zones in which its primary audiences reside. People often assume, wrongly, that my love of the sport dates from my time growing up in India. Whereas I truly became a follower of its international and club components while living in the U.K. about a decade ago. They also have incorrect assumptions about the teams I support. I am largely neutral, and in that spirit, love to see it when anyone but India, Australia, and England taste success at the top level of the sport. The test arena is far too inhibited by greedy nations given its potential.

Some of us dream of a day when we can watch the flat bat meet the red lacquer in more diverse settings. There are growing movements to establish stronger cricket programs worldwide – initiatives in Japan have found organic momentum as baseball-loving youth gravitate towards its colonial cousin; associate members across Europe, Africa, and South America grab every sporadically available opportunity to play in the longer formats at a professional level; regional T20 tournaments, bilateral and trilateral competitions between countries scraping together grassroots funding continue to grow. All this while the top nations hoard revenue and opportunity. Through the ICC, BCCI, CA and ECB.

For now, watching a former British colony stun the titans of the game at Lord’s will have to do.