Eccentrics in Cricket

World Cup Cricket


Ali Bacher is one of the great runners of all time. Every morning he hauls himself out of the bed he got into just a few hours before and goes for a jog to clear his head in readiness for the juggernaut of the day ahead.

He has spent a lot of his time running to Johannesburg International airport this week, where, together with the ever-entertaining Percy Sonn, he has been a member of the "meet and greet" show that welcomes teams to the Cricket World Cup.

His welcoming is as relentless as his running and while I do not doubt that he means it in all sincerity every time he says it, I will scream if I hear him say: "Welcome to the ICC Cricket World Cup 2003. You are coming to a country that has gone cricket mad," once more. Actually I will hear it once more. I am due at the Australian press conference as soon as I finish writing this column.
I discovered this week that there was a time when Bacher ran too much for his own good. The second-last entry in the The Cricketer Book of Cricket Eccentrics and Eccentric Behaviour notes an incident they call "possibly the world's worst running episode" in which the good doctor had a prominent part.
He was playing in a club match for Balfour Park, batting with Archer Wilson when Wilson hit the ball into the covers and both batsmen started on a quick single.

"Halfway down the track, Wilson called 'No' and turned back. Both batsmen were heading for the striker's wicket, and both made their ground. The ball was sent immediately to the bowler's end, and the bowler, doubtless surprised by finding both batsmen heading towards him, broke the wicket without the ball in his hand.

"The batsmen then split up, Wilson heading for the 'keeper's end and Bacher staying put. But then communications between 'keeper and bowler broke down, and Bacher and Wilson were tempted out of their respective creases.

"Further cries of 'Yes', 'No', 'Wait', 'Sorry' ensued, and by the time order had been restored, the batsmen were still not out but both had run more than 100 yards, both sets of stumps were flat on the ground, and not a single run had been scored."
We may be sadly short of eccentrics at this World Cup, with professionalism having sucked the fun out of most sports.

I'm sure we can count on Herschelle Gibbs to add a little sparkle to his catching celebrations, Ricky Ponting to ignore his stated mission to make Australia a better behaved team and thus indulge in some world-class sledging and one of the Canadians to score a six off the back of his bat.

But will we ever see the likes of Bobby Peel, a bowler with Yorkshire who was a drinker with a cricket problem? Like most drinkers he believed that he would be good on the other side of the bar counter and bought himself a pub, which he used to top up his blood alcohol level as often as possible.
How he played well is a mystery.

He was banned from the team for "running the wrong way and bowling at the pavilion in the belief that it was a batsman". Or there was the time, the final time, when he celebrated scoring 210 not out, his highest score ever, by going on the tear. The next day, still in a state of disrepair, he walked on to the field and "relieved himself on the pitch". He was banned for life.

He's not the only one. Graeme Pollock, Eddie Barlow and a few other South Africans took a whizz on the Old Trafford pitch after they had won a match there.
The Book of Eccentrics lists a few words of war from Fred Trueman and South Africa's Peter Heine that Brett Lee and Allan Donald may want to consider using in the World Cup.

Trueman hit Middlesex and England batsman Peter Parfitt full in the face and Parfitt retired hurt. Having discovered that nothing was broken Parfitt returned to be greeted by Trueman: "When I hit 'em they don't usually come back."

Heine was as vicious a bowler and as astute a talker. After a batsman had taken one of his deliveries to the head, Heine walked up to his victim and looked at his head: "No blood? I must be getting old."
The IT director at The Star is Dave Tiffin, who happens to be the brother of the Zimbabwean umpire Russell. As his brother has copped it in the neck a few times for his decisions in Australia, Dave may want to tell Russell this story.


When Australian captain Bill Lawry asked why he was given out umpire Arthur Fagg said straight-faced: "LBW."

"LBW?" said Lawry in disgust, "but I hit the bloody ball."

"I know," said Fagg. "That's why you were given out caught behind."

And, finally, the reason China is not at the World Cup is because of a man who did not like running at all. A fat Chinaman who had discovered cricket in England introduced his mates to the game when he got back home. As he did not enjoy fielding, he attached the ball, via a long string, to the bowler, making the deep fielders redundant. Only two runs were scored in the match, "which had an adverse effect on the Chinamen, who declared that cricket was futile and promptly retired from the game".

The Great Wall Myth

The Great Wall Myth




It is common mistake to say that The Great wall of China is visible from outer space. It is too thin to be noticed from such a great distance. There are no man made structures that are visible from space or moon. Man made objects start to disappear after 300 miles up. From that distance you can barely see the outline of the Great China Wall. If we consider that distance from Earth to Moon is around 384,403 kilometers/238,857 miles then we can draw reasonable conclusion that it would be impossible to see any man-made structures from such a distance. Astronaut Alan Bean said: "The only thing you can see from the moon is a beautiful sphere, mostly white (clouds), some blue (ocean), patches of yellow (deserts), and every once in a while some green vegetation. No man-made object is visible on this scale. In fact, when first leaving earth's orbit and only a few thousand miles away, no man-made object is visible at that point either."

New Words in the latest Oxford dictionary

This year new words including 'bloggable', 'clickjacking' and 'scareware' have been granted entry. Other new tecchy terms to make it in are 'sexting', 'tbh' and 'feature phone'.











Language is a constantly evolving thing, like a monkey exposed to high levels of radiation, and has been growing and changing more rapidly than ever since the rise of the internet.

Sigmund Freud..Founder of Psychoanalysis.

Sigmund Freud


Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) was a controversial figure. People either loved his theories or hated them. Even his own disciples got into disagreements. Freud believed that every person has an unconscious that can be discovered through a process called "psychoanalysis." In psychoanalysis, a patient would relax, perhaps on a couch, and use free association to talk about whatever they wanted. Freud believed that these monologues could reveal the inner workings of the patient's mind. Freud also postulated that slips of the tongue (now known as "Freudian slips") and dreams were also a way to understand the unconscious mind. Although many of Freud's theories are no longer in regular use, he established a new way of thinking about ourselves.

The “X” in “Xmas” , it's origin

The “X” in “Xmas” — Learn the sacred, 1,000-year-old meaning of the “X”


December 13, 2010 307 Comments Share Here’s a holiday surprise that only the dictionary can provide. Do you find the word “Xmas,” as an abbreviation for Christmas, offensive? Many people do.






You won’t find Xmas in church songbooks or even on many greeting cards. Xmas is popularly associated with a trend towards materialism, and sometimes the target of people who decry the emergence of general “holiday” observance instead of particular cultural and religious ritual.



But the history of the word “Xmas” is actually more respectable — and fascinating — than you might suspect.



First of all, the abbreviation predates by centuries its use in gaudy advertisements. It was first used in the mid 1500s.



X is the Greek letter “chi,” the initial letter in the word Χριστός. And here’s the kicker: Χριστός means “Christ.” X has been an acceptable representation of the word “Christ” for hundreds of years. This device is known as a Christogram.



The “mas” in Xmas is the Old English word for “mass.” The thought-provoking etymology of “mass” can be found here.






In the same vein, the dignified terms “Xpian” and “Xtian” have been used in place of the word “Christian.”



As lovers of the alphabet, we are transfixed by the flexibility of “X.” The same letter can represent the sacred, the profane (“rated X”), and the unknown (“X-ray.”) What does the “X” in Xbox stand for?