Cricket Uncut
A group blog run by professional cricket writers from across the world
Wednesday, March 09, 2005
Bad day no sunshine
I woke up today morning with the gentle sound of pitter-pattering on my roof, and for a few seconds I lay there blissfully, enjoying the warmth of my blanket. Then I turned to see if my wife was awake, and found no wife there, but a seedy red cushion. I realised with a start that I was on tour, and it was raining, and that meant that there might be no cricket today. "Damn," I thought, "nothing to blog about?"
Well, I'm at the press box now, and the rain stopped long ago, the covers are on. It doesn't appear likely that there'll be play until lunch, but I think that we might get a couple of sessions in after that. The drainage at this ground is good, and super-sopper connoisseurs assure me that the super soppers at this ground are the best there are. Soon (invented verb coming up) super-sopping will begin.
Readers have written in wondering why I stopped blogging last afternoon. Well, the end of the day's play gets rather hectic for me, because I have to finish off a piece for Cricinfo before rushing to the press conference, getting quotes from there, and writing my report for the Guardian. The pieces I wrote yesterday are here, here (both Cricinfo) and here (Guardian).
I actually have it pretty easy. Most journalists here, especially those who write for newspapers, have to file at least two and often three stories a day. One, of course, is the match report; another often incorporates the quotes from the PC; and the third could either be a diary, or a collection of snippets, or a mood piece, or any other story they can find, like an interview with a former star who may be around.
One of the consequences of this is that some of them don't actually have the time to watch the game properly, with the attention that it demands from someone writing a match report. Some reporters cope with this quite well, but with some, quality does suffer.
English newspapers have the best system. Each of them has a designated cricket correspondent, and a designated No. 2. They go to all England matches. The main guy files the match report, the other fellow does a second piece, and that's the whole of it. One piece each, so they're nice and focussed.
Of course, there is one thing that no one has yet done from a press box at a cricket match: blogging. Typing all day fairly exhausts me, especially with a laptop that likes to hang like an ape exercising its triceps. I do it for you, and I do it for free. Clap now.
Well, I'm at the press box now, and the rain stopped long ago, the covers are on. It doesn't appear likely that there'll be play until lunch, but I think that we might get a couple of sessions in after that. The drainage at this ground is good, and super-sopper connoisseurs assure me that the super soppers at this ground are the best there are. Soon (invented verb coming up) super-sopping will begin.
Readers have written in wondering why I stopped blogging last afternoon. Well, the end of the day's play gets rather hectic for me, because I have to finish off a piece for Cricinfo before rushing to the press conference, getting quotes from there, and writing my report for the Guardian. The pieces I wrote yesterday are here, here (both Cricinfo) and here (Guardian).
I actually have it pretty easy. Most journalists here, especially those who write for newspapers, have to file at least two and often three stories a day. One, of course, is the match report; another often incorporates the quotes from the PC; and the third could either be a diary, or a collection of snippets, or a mood piece, or any other story they can find, like an interview with a former star who may be around.
One of the consequences of this is that some of them don't actually have the time to watch the game properly, with the attention that it demands from someone writing a match report. Some reporters cope with this quite well, but with some, quality does suffer.
English newspapers have the best system. Each of them has a designated cricket correspondent, and a designated No. 2. They go to all England matches. The main guy files the match report, the other fellow does a second piece, and that's the whole of it. One piece each, so they're nice and focussed.
Of course, there is one thing that no one has yet done from a press box at a cricket match: blogging. Typing all day fairly exhausts me, especially with a laptop that likes to hang like an ape exercising its triceps. I do it for you, and I do it for free. Clap now.
