Sogfest

Bogfest, even. I was at the SCG on Day 2, when the last fitful efforts at play took place. I always feel sorry for the spectators when I see these days on television, but it was surprising how tolerable it was to sit watching the rain falling on the ground for most of 6 hours. Under cover, with mild temperatures, it was almost pleasant. It's a day out, the ground is pretty, one chats, or not, and grazes constantly from a full cooler bag of delightful foodstuffs. Expecting interruptions, I brought distractions – newspaper, knitting, trashy magazine – but I didn't even get to the last one. I have a theory that driving is enjoyable because you really can't do anything else while you're doing it and there are very few opportunities for guilt-free single-tasking in this world that aren't about work. It's the freedom of having no choice, between work and leisure. Waiting in the rain was a bit like that.

Chase Girly

Another situation where I wonder "What would CLR James say?" I'm disappointed to see that the analysis of the Chris Gayle Incident has turned to the idea of "cultural (in)differences", ie. that Chris Gayle Comes from somewhere A Bit Backward. That strikes me as simply chasing one instance of extreme rudeness with another. There are more churches per square kilometre in Jamaica than any other country in the world, but we can leave the empirical arguments aside here. We know a priori that Chris Gayle's behaviour is not appropriate anywhere, because his bad boy persona is built on not behaving appropriately anywhere. If there were a planet on which Gayle's behaviour didn't skirt the limits of polite society, he would change it immediately. That's his 'brand'.

In that sense I had some sympathy for the commenter who basically said, directing his comments to Gayle's employers rather than Mel McLaughlin, 'if you play with fire, you're gonna get burned'. I have never seen Chris Gayle not be palpably flirtatious in on-field interviews with female reporters and actually wondered how he would handle himself with Mel when the situation arose. There were plenty of opportunities to coach him on manners before this. I would not want that job, but that's the one they signed up for.