Life is grand

To say I am relieved after yesterday’s win against the West Indies is to put it mildly. After the thrashing at the hands of Bangladesh, the near-loss against Sri Lanka and other lack-lustre performances I was feeling dispirited about South African cricket.

“We felt we were a little bit tentative against Bangladesh and we wanted to really come out and express ourselves this time,” Smith said. “We got ourselves to the top ranking by playing our natural game, and we discussed how we just occasionally put ourselves under pressure by not sticking to what we do best. We wanted to relax and go back to that today and play with freedom, and a bit of brain.”

That quote expresses exactly what I was feeling. We were going into games fearing the ball and bat, scared to dare. And yet when we stride out onto the pitch and play the game our way, we do so well. Not only do we do well but the game is enjoyable to watch, not the cringe worthy efforts of other games were I literally felt disgusted at the apparent attitude of our team.

The next game is against New Zealand, a team in the ascendancy. If we go into the game brimming with the joy of wanting to play good cricket then we will do well. We may not win but we will be good to watch and can say we are worthy.

Video at YouTube

Spent a fantastic Sunday with Fi at the infamous Croke Park in Dublin. We watched Waterford take on and beat Tipperary in the Hurling Championship quarter-final.

Blimey! The Kaizer Chiefs beat Manchester United today 4-3 on penalties (0-0 full-time.) The Chiefs are a South African soccer team (not the band) from my home province. Well done lads!

I know this won’t happen but I do wish the world would call it soccer. Back home in South Africa we call it soccer, not football. The USA does it, Australia do too and so does much of Ireland. In Ireland if you asked about the football you would be quickly regaled by a bunch of GAA (pronounced “Gaah!”, not “Gee Ay Ay”) fans. Gaelic football is very popular in Ireland. Ask for football in the States and you’ll get yardages. Down under football will get you Aussie “no” Rules which makes any other sport look tame.

By the way; Google has a handy feature where you can search for “football Argentina” and the first “result” is a summary of the games. Try any team.

Last night the Shelekabookys played their first mixed-social Irish Tag Rugby Association game down in Waterpark, Waterford against the Sun Life team. We lost (10-0) but had a really good time. We had trained only twice and only two of us on the team had ever played Rugby before.

One thing I learnt was that you have no chance without boots. On wet Irish grass you either go spinning off the field as you go full tilt in runners (takkies for us Saffas) or you end up only going at 50% to avoid slipping. A couple of the lads on the Sun Life team had boots and could dodge and weave around us with ease.

Our next game is this coming week and it should be even better.