Back to good old banality

The Ashes have ended in a stream of superlatives from players, commentators and fans - "It's been absolutely fabulous...", "Outstandingly breathtaking, really", "I'm speechlessly speechless..", "'ere now Aggers, leave me alone wi' me Shampane" and so on. I feel it is my duty to jump onto the bandwagon. For a change, it won't quite be off the mark.

An exhilerating summer has sadly come to an end. A summer which rekindled a love for the game, not just in me, but in several others who were slightly worried about declining standards and the negative effect of the one-day game on proper cricket. Watching the Ashes has been akin to turning the cellphone off and taking a long, comfortable (and well deserved, mind you) mid-weekday nap. A wonderful break from the real world to get a glimpse of some exotc parallel universe where everthing is beautiful - especially the cricket.

Sadly now, its back to the banalities of real life like Champions league games between the inevitable struggling but spirited crap team and a team that can buy it up several hundred times over. Or worse still, the India-Zimbabwe series and the ball-by-ball coverage on cricinfo with moments of sheer genius like this one, "...played down to mid-on region, this time fielder attack the ball and cut offs the single."