It’s Day 2 of the 4th test in the 23 Ashes and I have always loved cricket. But another part of me is exhausted by it. I’m 57 not out in a few weeks time and I have been watching the Ashes from England since 1975. First trauma was 77 when Australia lost and then Greg Chappell retired. I suffered through the nightmare of 81 tour and then the long bleakness of 85. But somehow I was able to watch and enjoy it but these days with so much weight it seems so foolish to care about who wins. I want to stop caring about the result and enjoy the contest. But it is so in my blood to care that I seem not to be able to get real joy from the game. I always found that I was less parochial when I was at the ground; then the players were people and as a kid you could even wander out on the playing field. But now cricket seems a more potent symbol of life’s absurdity than respite from it.
I am fairly serious when I say that I would love to defeat the need to be / the habit of being parochial – it seems to be a manifestation of a toxicity that infects so much of our human history. I have a friend who says that football is the only time when the instinct to be tribal is permitted. But I think that all tribalism is now a negative and I am wanting to be done it. In Paul Simon’s Wartime Prayers, he writes that he wants to “rid his heart of envy and his soul of rage before I’m through”. Surely I can take real joy in Zak Crawley’s cover drive and enjoy a Jonny Bairstow innings. I don’t need to curse Labuschagne’s shot to Mo, do I? I know that people talk about the 2005 series but I watched it I would have preferred to have Australia win 5-0. Surely that is an illness.
Some of you will feel the need to tell me its natural and okay and some of you will say that of course it doesn’t matter. But I want to know if there is somebody out there who maintained their passion for the sport while also surrendering the desire to grind the opposition into the dust. I don’t think its healthy to hope that Stuart Broad fall down the stairs.
I partly wrote this because I read the celebratory afterword thread and I too have been around since the magazine, have never changed my user name and contribute quite frequently. I have tested my ideas out quite often and have always enjoyed the level and considered responses. A couple of people said that they had run out of things to post so this has been on my mind as I read the various ashes threads.
I think it depends. Some people can do it, others less so.
I watch the NRL. I don’t have a club, per se. I only got here three years ago. But every game I watch – and I watch nearly all of them – I have a pecking order of teams I’d like to see do well, and teams I actively want to lose.
I was a Scot growing up in England in the late 70s and beyond. There is absolutely no way I will ever support England at anything; worse, no matter who they are playing against, I actively want England to lose.
Is that parochial, or narrow minded? Maybe. But it gives the sport a real edge when I’m watching it.
I’m an Englishman who spent some years living in Wales. I love the country, love the people (mostly), and would happily move back. But by God, I love it when they lose a sporting event.
I am trying to care less about sports results,, it’s all very silly to have your day spoilt by people running around hitting, kicking or throwing balls around. If you think hard about it, it’s completely ludicrous.
This has worked with cricket, not parochial at all any more. Football a bit harder, but rugby is difficult for me. I think I am getting better about it. Life’s too short to really worry about such things. However should Wales win the World Cup later this year (they won’t) I might be a little pleased. The bad thing is that I don’t want Ireland to win it, which is kind of regrettable and it’s all a bit silly
I don’t want to care anymore
I grew up in a kinder time I think. We are Spurs fans in our family, and I clearly remember my Dad saying that we support other London teams once Spurs are out of the Cup. I remember going to West Ham and standing wherever you wanted because it was perfectly OK.
With the cricket, of course I want England to win, but if Australia win this series it won’t be because England died wondering, and that is good enough for me. It has been desperately close and a brilliant watch, and that is enough for me in a way.
Re the comments by our Scottish correspondent – I find that desperately sad, but also very familiar (see also Wales and Ireland). It is because of this that I always want them to lose, hopefully as humiliatingly as possible (unfortunately they are quite good at the moment). This is purely because of their attitude to us and I have nothing against the people or their wonderful country. As an aside, I was in a pub in Edinburgh a few years ago and there was lots of memorabilia on the wall, and I was fairly amazed to see a picture of Bobby Moore triumphantly holding aloft the Jules Rimet trophy in 1966. Go figure…
English landlord? Did England win the World Cup once? Nobody ever mentions it 😉
Excellent, I knew it would wind people up!
Yep on that day 11 guys kicked the ball around better than another 11 guys who lived a thousand miles away or so
I’m not sure if this is exactly relevant but I think when you invest so much time and effort in supporting a club, getting pissed off when they fail to win is an inevitable by product.
I watch the (very) occasional football match as a neutral but somehow it just seems a bit, well, dreary and unengaging, without having someone to get behind. Despite being English I feel a bit like this when watching England. The football I watch is non league (National League South) and as I just don’t really follow Premier League stuff I find it hard to identify with the England squad. (Ha…Declan Rice’s Dad used to play for my team in the mid-eighties!)
When I watch my actual team (I always get a season ticket and go to most aways too) it’s different…sure, I feel a desperate tension but it’s tinged with an optimism that we might pull something good out of the hat. I think it definitely helps that the club I support has punched above its weight for years and would probably be a more natural fit in the league below, but that in itself gives supporters a sense of the underdog spirit, which is always quite appealing.
I don’t think I could watch sport without also having a furtive respect and admiration for the opposition. If they are not equally capable ; well it won’t be much of a competition. So Cummins and Starc are essential, though if Warne and Border were still around, the winning would be a far greater achievement.
I thought I would become less interested in international sport when I became too old to play myself. But I still desperately want England/GB to win things. If Scotland, Ireland, Wales and N Ireland play someone I am invested in them too.
At club level I look back and am grateful that I decided in 1974 to follow Ipswich Town (I had a brief fling with QPR) and Woking in the mid-80s when we moved there. These are great clubs to follow.