OMG...... I know you have pictures Gavin, let’s see'um!!!!

Unfortunately, I don't think I do have any. It was way back in 1982, I think, and people didn't take pictures as much back then. This is a great pity, because it means that there is no record of my stirring 32 not out against the Edinburgh Jewish team. This was surprising in two ways - firstly that I made a decent score and secondly that there were eleven Jews in Edinburgh.

LOL...... Hey Marc, you play cricket?

GOOD LORD!!!!

How do you go from a simple story about writing songs with an artist and some success to "CRICKET IN INDIA AND PAKISTAN? Jeez! I go to teach a class and this is what you do?

No, Japov, I know nothing about Cricket. Except for this. For about 15 years until her death last year, one of my best friends, Susie Martin, was from Liverpool England. She HATED Cricket, because her Dad used to drag her to matches and in the middle of the afternoon, around three, they stopped the game for TEA. That was an absurdity she never got accustomed to. Other than that it looks like a pretty silly game to me. 

However it's pretty easy to know why it would be big in India and Pakistan. Those were originally British colonies, and one country until 1947. Ever watch GANDHI? 

Interesting things you guys get into.

Ha! Your response is priceless MAB. lol

Do they play cricket in Australia?

Yes. And in New Zealand. It's the biggest summer sport in both countries, but the preference here (in NZ) is for the short game which is fast paced and lasts just one day as opposed to FIVE!

FIVE DAYS!!! Yep, only in Australia..... Hmmm.... How would you write a country song about cricket?

........ Come on Marc, I'm tryin' to bring it back home for ya'......

Nope. Not only in Australia. The original game was just that. A five day test match whether it was Scotland, Wales, Pakistan, India, NZ, Sri Lanka..... Yawn.

MAB only writes about what will interest folks. A song about a five day game of Cricket would just put people to sleep.

I don't get the problem with playing Dixie. Pardon my ignorance, as a non-American, I'm not really familiar with US north/south relations, but I would have thought that what separated the north and the south was long gone and so playing dixie would just be of historical interest rather than flaming the fires of the south. Is there really so much power in an old song?

Jen, Dixie was originally a minstrel song., Ironically, it was written in the North for white guys in black face to sing about longing to be back on the plantation. There's a lot of baggage right there. Pity, because it's a wonderful tune, I think.

I don't know about a country song about cricket - reggae, on the other hand...

Jen's right about the five day game, although not about the countries that engage in it. Wales doesn't have a team. Welsh cricketers just play for England, since their counties, i.e. Glamorgan, play in the same competitions as their English counterparts, like Yorkshire, Lancashire, Kent, Essex, etc. The same used to be true of Scots, since it's not such a popular game north of the border. The England vs Australia rivalry is one of the oldest and fiercest in the world. Every couple of years, they play for a trophy called The Ashes, and it's practically war. That's the five day game. Purists frown upon the shorter versions as they have too much excitement and that's... well, it's just not cricket.

We get that purist thing here too, especially when they first introduced the code

Jen, we are going through some very trying times here in the States. Songs like "Dixie" and many other statues, signs, names, of things from the old south and many other things are being torn down and the country is going through a great deal of turmoil. People are being punished for things they said or did 30 and 40 years ago, college pictures they took, and a large amount of political correctness is going on.

There have been many things done to a lot of people here, and there are very few people that are not affected. So it's just going to take time to see how it sorts out. Personally, I don[t believe we can be blamed by things we had nothing to do with, but I do understand how some things can be offensive to others. The problem is that EVERYTHING is offensive to SOMEBODY. Being insulted or offended is just a part of life, and most things we just have to grow up and deal with. 

Dixie falls into that category. Being from the South, I can understand it from both sides, but it's not like I marched in the War with Stonewall Jackson. I'm pretty old, but not quite that old. 

I do know a bit about history and so I probably could find that it was a Cricket match gone wrong between Prince Ferdinand and the Archduke of something that started World War One. Gotta learn to laugh at some of this nonsense. 

MAB

Sigh. There's just too much hate in this world. When will people learn that we need to focus on our similarities rather than our differences in order to get along. It's all so childish.

I for one am for remembering our roots, no matter how ugly. Taking down all reference to the ugly past over time becomes a form of forgetting. But then, I'm not really qualified to comment.

The PC crowd will have us living in a sterile world before we know it.

You got that right. The Nazi's took down all vestiges of Hitler and now there is a rise in Nazi's again. Those that do not study history are doomed to repeat it. Enough of that now. 

Again, the only reason I mentioned any of this was to explain context. That's a big thing with me. Hope it answered your question about one song. Now I guess we can get back to cricket.