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| Saturday, 01 January 2005 |
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Our cricketers in empathic gesture by Richard Dwight With the sea invading our land in its unprecedented fury, merciless though many a worthy lesson, amongst which unity, has at times to be learnt at a cost, the hard way, even if it sadly means the sacrificing of precious lives. Acknowledged it is, that whatever the environment or prevailing circumstance, this noble game of cricket will always be spoken of as a gentleman's game, where it stirs one's inner self to be considerate for another's feelings, which has also to do with one's approach and attitude to victory and defeat, triumph and disaster and the ups and downs, that seeps down to the wider sphere of life as well. But by far, that which is salutary and most relevant in the context of the country's present predicament, is that the game teaches cricketers to develop a sense of unity, oneness of spirit and togetherness - that leads to having possessive pride and a sense of belonging to the country they represent. This has amply been made manifest by our cricketers in New Zealand, who on hearing of the immense hardship and the overwhelming grief caused to their fellowmen through this cruel tidal wave - have stood to a man in deciding to cry halt to their New Zealand cricket tour and return home. In doing so they were prepared to turn their back on all that a cricket tour has in store for them, and instead found it necessary to empathise and identify themselves with their sorrowing countrymen. Perhaps they quite rightly felt that the need of the hour was certainly not playing cricket, (for which they were in no mood or frame of mind) when their country was grappling with the pitiable state it found itself in. Heartening as it is this emotion stirring empathetic gesture will, even in a small way go to cushion off the blow sustained by the suffering many here. Equally gratifying it is to find that the two respective cricket boards, the SLC and NZC along with the ICC, have with mutual accord displayed mature understanding, to call off the tour. Encouraging as well, was to learn that they were pledging support to our country's need, not to mention the players engaged in international cricket matches, lining up to observe two minutes silence, which was indeed touching. This is cricket, part from the scoring of runs and the taking of wickets, that the game is all about in the end. Comparatively, our cricketers are a disciplined lot, to be the pride of our country, but the same cannot be said of the other sportsmen and, a good many people in general. We will do well, as long as the waters cover the sea, to realise that we are dealing with a far greater higher force which we cannot comprehend and, if we do not mend our ways, a much more serious and a worse thing could befall us. |
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