Category Archives: cricket

January 8, 2008 · 10:33 pm

aussies preoccupied?

Now, don’t get me wrong – I love cricket. I can sit down and watch every minute of 5 days of a test match, and enjoy it. I like going to the games, I like reading about the games. But not to the expense of everything else

In these recent days, I have begun to despair of the Aussie preoccpation with fluff and bluster. Check out this from today’s SMH webpage:

8 out of 10 of the top read articles are about whether the Australian cricket team will get to keep playing cricket this summer, and whether they are good sportsmen or not. [Somehow, as an aberration, something about people nearly dying in a plane crash nearly made it into the top 5!]

How do we get a word in sideways about God’s grace in Jesus? Hmm…..

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April 1, 2007 · 11:32 pm

More right than he knows

I have loved cricket for a long time – ever since my dad first explained to me that when the ball hits the fence, its four.

I have also enjoyed the commentary provided by Peter Roebuck in the SMH. He is able to combine wit and insight with a broader reflection on life.

Last saturday, he wrote a piece about the death of Pakistan coach Bob Woolmer. In it, he desparied of the human condition, that a game could become the stage for such a heinus act.

Read the article here.

He has correctly idenitified the symptoms, but his diagnosis and prescribed course of treatment are way out.

The disease is selfish ambition and pride, otherwise desribed by the Bible as sin. The cure is not turning to the words of some Indian spiritual guru about submitting yourself to the universals of love and kindness. The cure is grace & forgiveness won by Jesus on a cross 2000 years ago; and renewal brought by his Holy Spirit.

Close, but not close enough. My prayer is that this tragedy could somehow be used by God to turn some of those players to Jesus in their search for meaning in it all.

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Filed under cricket, sin