If really pushed for a response, I talk of cricket’s grace, its physical bravery, its psychological and intellectual dimensions, its emotional resonances, of the confrontation between batsman and bowler, of the struggle for power, the endless possibilities, the unpredictable flux. After four hours’ detailed (some might say definitive) advocacy, sometimes with the use of audio-visual aids and always with a complete description of the various grips a leg-spinner might use, I tiptoe out of the room before my unwitting audience wakes up.
