Cricket and pyjama cricket

FASCINATING research figures the International Cricket Council has come up with. The game has more than a billion fans, world-wide.

What are they going to do with this information? Seventy percent of respondents support Test cricket (86% in England and Wales). South Africans show 86% interest in the one-day format; Pakistanis support T20 96%.

Bearing in mind the board game analogy – Test cricket is chess, one-day is draughts and T20 snakes and ladders – the ICC need to be very careful not to chase the numbers (and the money) at the expense of real cricket. The current controversy in England over attempts to introduce a dumbed-down format called "The Hundred" is cause for concern. There's even talk that it could supplant the current county championship.

Play pyjama cricket with a white ball by all means. Have fun! But keep a balance. There's nothing more thrilling and beguiling than Test cricket. Besides, it confuses the hell out of the Americans. That's always a plus.

Game's on

SO IT'S back to Kings Park and Super Rugby tomorrow. It's the auld enemy, the Lions.

Our fellows were so well represented in the Bok camp for the Tests against England that in theory we should be a formidable combination.

But rugby is not about theory, it's about 80 minutes on the field, seizing every opportunity, staying wide awake, tackling, tackling, tackling. Anything can happen.

We need the points. They need the points. The play-offs beckon. This is certain to be a humdinger. Cossack dancing in the Duikers' Club?

Ole, ole, ole!

Bus dispute

AN ACCOUNT comes this way of a bus driver with the wisdom of Solomon.

Two women were fighting over the last vacant seat on the bus. The conductor tried to intervene but was told to get lost.

The driver: "Get a grip, will you! Let the ugly one take the seat!"

The scrap subsided. Both women stood for the rest of the journey.

Yes, the wisdom of Solomon.

Tick, tick …

THE  clock ticks for Brexit. The say an exit deal has to be nailed down by October, otherwise it's too late to meet the deadline. They're nowhere near a deal.

They have to work out how the "soft" border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland can be retained with the UK out of the customs union.

Airbus says it will relocate from Britain if nothing is worked out. That's 14 000 highly skilled jobs and another 130 000 in supply operations.

Er, could all the details not have been worked out before Article 50 – the divorce process – was triggered?

A cliff-edge Brexit? Whom the gods would destroy they first make mad.

Flying flamingo

NEXT time flamingos put in an appearance at Blue Lagoon or in the harbour, keep an eye open for No 492. He's a flamingo with such a taste for travel that anything is possible.

No 492 – that's the number on a ring on his leg – was spotted a week or so ago flying among seagulls at Lavaca Bay, in Texas, according to Huffington Post. He's also been seen flying in the company of a Caribbean flamingo, who might be his mate.

No 492 started out in Tasmania, then spent some time in South Africa (though it's not explained exactly how this happened). Then he was among 40 flamingos that were captured and sent to a Zoo in Wichita, Kansas, in the US.

The zoo people put the 492 ring on his leg, but next thing he escaped one stormy night of high winds. This was 10 years ago and he's been at large ever since, being spotted at various locations in America. He is believed to be about 22 years old.

"It's a testament to the adaptability of these animals," says Scott Newland, curator of birds at Sedgwick County Zoo, from which 492 escaped.

"The zoo has never tried to recapture the bird because it began its life in the wild and is naturally wary of being approached by people."

Tailpiece

 

CUSTOMER in a bar: "I'd like something tall, icy and full of gin."

Barman (over his shoulder into the kitchen): "Oi, Doris! Someone to see ya."

Last word

Political advertising ought to be stopped. It's the only really dishonest kind of advertising that's left.

David M. Ogilvy