SPORTS April 12, 2010 Issue

PLAY UP ... AND PLAY THE GAME!

ANDREW WILSON

HERE IN ENGLAND a new cricket season is under way. Bats have been oiled, pads whitened, and fields and pitches all the way from Lord's to Leeds have been mown and marked.

Several visiting international teams will be seen in action here this summer, including Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Australia.

At this time of year, many cricket lovers find their minds drifting back nostalgically to the poem Vitai Lampada (the torch of life) by Sir Henry Newbolt who, with schoolboys in mind, rendered courage on the cricket pitch analogous with courage on the battlefield. In the poem, the men never forget their captain's voice which