And now for the cricket...
As The Jakarta Post rarely carries stories on the game of cricket in its sports pages, I shall contribute some -- but for the letters page:
* It is said the late American comedian Groucho Marx was taken to a cricket match and after 30 minutes of watching players in white clothes moving with ballet-like movements over the green, was asked how he was enjoying the game. "Fine," he said. "But when does it begin?"
* It is the year 2007. On the BBC one morning, the newscaster solemnly announces: "World War III has started. There have been nuclear exchanges, and major cities are devastated. Whole populations are in panic on four continents: millions are fleeing to the countryside." After a pause, the announcer continues: "More news on the war later. Firstly, we turn to... the cricket!"
* King George III's German-born son, eager to prove his English heritage, was president of the London Club, which published the game's first rules in 1774. Sadly, he died after being struck on the head by a cricket ball. Of course.
* At Lord's cricket club, the world headquarters of the game, smoking has finally been banned from its Long Room, the sacred place for gentlemen. But the "gentlemen", even to this day, still ban women from the club. The 19th century will one day end at Lord's -- perhaps in the year 2001.
In Hong Kong, due to be returned to China on July 1, a group of expatriates is now working hard to ensure that "this great legacy of an empire" survives the Union Jack. A campaign is on to teach more Chinese children to play cricket. The sport's local chairman, Peter Slack, said recently: "It is a great game given to those countries fortunate enough to have been colonized."
Oh sure, Mr. Slack. Let's ask the never-colonized people of Thailand if they envy the history of say, Angola, where independence movements were brutally suppressed by the Portuguese. Perhaps that is why I am not enamored with cricket. I equate it too much with colonialism and the Europeans -- only cricket clubs of the past.
There is still hope for cricket, though. The best players these days are those who were considered less fortunate in the days of the British Empire.
FARID BASKORO
Jakarta