'Not enough cricket,' did I hear you say? No use denying it - I distinctly heard you. Fear not. As August settles into being its late summer self after some early confusion with its predecessor, a July which hangs about too long insisting on its rights; as leather and willow sing their thwacky duet and third slip makes his way down to deep fine leg; as a giant dragonfly passes the nose of the drowsy spectator in his deckchair under the oak at the Lower Mowbray-le-Swanton ground; I bring you two items that will fascinate you by their age.
First, I failed to Mark the Ramprakash hundredth hundred and must now make suitable amends. So I give you the hundred 100s club, and this affectionate piece by Simon Hattenstone about Ramprakash and Graeme Hick, linked by their special combination of success and failure. About the former, Hattenstone writes: 'he seemed to score 27 in virtually every Test innings he played'. (Thanks: RB.)
Second, I stun you with the claim that the game of cricket may be even older than we thought. It could be that it was played by the Son of God:
[Dr Abraham] Terian notes that in the Armenian Gospel of the Infancy, translated into Armenian in the 6th century from a much older lost Syriac original, a passage tells of Jesus playing what may well be the precursor of cricket, with a club and ball.
It gets better:
"The most amazing part of the story of the nine-year-old Jesus playing a form of cricket with the boys at the sea shore, is that he would go on playing the game on water, over the sea waves," he added.
Yes, but could Jesus bowl a decent googly? (Via.)