Once In A Lifetime

Posted by Colin Harvey Aug 22, 2009

Yesterday at the Kennington Oval in London, one of those rare events happened, and at the moment it's too early to say whether cricketer Stuart Broad has just ascended to the next level of ability on a permanant basis, in which case he will soon be world class, or whether -as I suspect- he briefly transcended his own limitations.

Cricket is much more similar to baseball than many people realize. In both a bowler (pitcher) must try to get a batsman (hitter) out by bamboozling him with a ball bowled (pitched) at him. In both the batsman has to try to hit it. Of course there are differences, but the basics are the same.

What Broad achieved was to change the course of not just a game, but perhaps even an entire sporting summer. The Ashes are for cricket fans the world over the equivalent of the Superbowl or the Stanley Cup, and suddenly people who have no interest in sport are talking cricket. Major sporting success can lift an entire nation and, raise productivity.

At the point Broad came onto bowl, the Australians were progressing serely toward a major first innings lead, and retaining The Ashes. Broad suddenly found the ability to make the bowl move first one way and then the other in the same delivery. By taking the top five Australian batsmen's wickets in the space of an hour, Broad not only ripped out the heart of their innings, he induced the panic which allowed the other England bowlers to clean up. Commentators were comparing it to two previous occasions, in 1961 and 1981. Such a spell of bowling happens that infrequently.

And to put it in context for SF fans, it was as if a fairly minor veteran writer suddenly produced a major seminal work. Two comparisons are Frank Herbert, who never before or after produced anything as visionary, as ground-breaking or as acclaimed as the original Dune. But let's hope Broad's sudden emergence is more akin to Vernor Vinge's after he wrote A Fire Upon The Deep, and became --after almost thirty years- a major writer.

Now that I've finished recording the opening chapter of Winter Song for the Angry Robot website, I'm going to go and listen to what happens today.