Nouveau Fab

Crests and troughs, rise and fall - a feature in most..

Fuck it, Sick Boy said it best, didn't he?

"Well, at one time, you've got it, and then you lose it, and it's gone forever. All walks of life: George Best, for example. Had it, lost it. Or David Bowie, or Lou Reed..."

Now he can add Australia to the list. That's it. I have joined the army of people singing dirges for Australian cricket. Long may it push daisies.

Simulataneous to its demise, is the rise of another superpower. Looks like South Africa are finally beginning to fulfill the promise of Kepler, Peter Kirsten, Andrew Hudson, Brian McMillan, Cullinan, Gary etc. The newest in fab batting line-ups. The FabFour for cricket fans born after 1997.

Graeme Smith: Has seen the worst, and now close to leading a side crafted in his own image to the best of times.
A B De: Has proved everyone that he is already much much better than Rhodes. Has done it in India which seems to be some kind of benchmark for white batsmen. And has done well against the Australian and English bowling attacks.
Hashim Amla: Beard. Wrists. Zen.
J P Duminy: Too early? Pencilled in for future fabness.

Jihad on ugliness?

Has Islam outlawed ugliness in batting?! The Caliphate (or whatever) forgot to send me the memo.

Outside of Salman Butt and Younis Khan, the evidence is overwhelming. VVS might not be a Muslim, be he does hail from Hyderabad. And I have not even started about Inzy and Yousuf.

Trust and the Dark Knight

Technology is very strange, sometimes simultaneously clarifying while obfuscating. Like the bump catch. The more cameras we get and the greater their resolution and speed, the more we realize the limitations in our understanding of the three-dimensional through the two-dimensional. Any referral of a dubious catch will always throw up an inconclusive verdict - certainly going in favour of the batsman.

This problem sounds very similar to the Heisenberg principle, though I'm sure it has nothing to do with it. (I'm assuming all of you went to high school)

Cricketers know this, umpires know this too, and so do administracrats - but the charade of taking it upstairs continues.

Taking the fielder's word for it is the only option we got now. Until of course, the ICC invests in the kind of sonar imaging that the Dark Knight invested in.