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The Day I Witnessed the Worst of Manhood
And What We Can Learn From It
What kind of man screams at a child over a game of cricket?
To understand what happened that day, you first need to understand the game itself. For those unfamiliar, cricket is a bit like baseball’s distant, more complicated cousin — players face a bowler (like a pitcher) hurling the ball at over 90 mph, and batters try to score runs by defending the ball with a flat bat. But unlike baseball, cricket doesn’t give you a second strike. One mistake, one misstep, and you’re out. There’s no second swing, no chance to redeem yourself until the next game.
So, when you get out in cricket, the long, lonely walk from the center of the oval back to the changeroom feels like a spotlight is fixed on you. The crowd, if there is one, watches your every step. Your teammates, sitting on the sideline, don’t say much. It’s a solitary journey, giving you ample time to replay your mistake in your head over and over again.
And while you carry the weight of your failure off the ground, the opposing team celebrates your dismissal.
It’s brutal.
But it’s also good for teaching you about life. Cricket doesn’t coddle you. It doesn’t let you explain away your mistake or give you a chance to fix it right away. It forces you to…