One of the many joys of this Ashes series is that this summer my daughter has begun to care about cricket.<\/p>\n
And there is nothing that reminds you of the beautiful weirdness of the game so much as trying to explain it to a relentlessly curious five-year-old.<\/p>\n
First there\u2019s the language of cricket, which frankly bears no resemblance to language we use in the rest of our lives. We\u2019ve resorted to calling \u201covers\u201d \u201cturns\u201d, \u201cruns\u201d \u201cpoints\u201d and \u201cbowling\u201d \u201cthrows\u201d to help her understand what we\u2019re talking about.<\/p>\n
There are the obvious explanatory challenges presented by the rules \u2013 watching my husband try to explain lbw (leg before wicket) was a sight to behold \u2013 and then there\u2019s just the variability of the game.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow long does it go for?\u201d she asks. \u201cFive days, but it could be four, or three,\u201d we tell her.<\/p>\n
Or \u2013 as was the case for the first men\u2019s Ashes Test this year, when we promised her it would still be on the next day when she woke up, and then Travis Head obliterated England\u2019s bowling attack \u2013 two.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut who is winning?\u201d she has asked more times than I can count over the past month. \u201cWell, it doesn\u2019t really work like that,\u201d we say.<\/p>\n
What sort of sport is this?<\/p>\n
Cricket is also a drama of personalities and her observations of the human element of the game have demonstrated a child\u2019s delightful clear-eyed perceptiveness.<\/p>\n
\u2018My favourite of her reactions was when Ben Stokes was hit in the groin by a scorching delivery.\u2019 Photograph: Dave Hunt\/AAP<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy is he so grumpy?\u201d she asked when the camera kept cutting \u2013 with a regularity that bordered on cruelty \u2013 to Nathan Lyon as 12th man during the Test at the Gabba.<\/p>\n
Then when his return to the side in the third Test was cut short by that furious dive in the outfield she was alert to my strong reaction. \u201cWhat did he do wrong? What\u2019s a \u2018numpty\u2019? Why is he too old to do things like that? How old is he?\u201d<\/p>\n
My favourite of her reactions was when Ben Stokes was hit in the groin by a scorching delivery from Michael Neser. She was perplexed by the response, both from her parents and the commentators who couldn\u2019t stop laughing. \u201cWhy do they keep showing it and laughing if it hurts him?\u201d Bless her.<\/p>\n
Also, alert to injustice in the way that children often are, she observed one day: \u201cThere are no women talking.\u201d<\/p>\n
We jumped in to tell her there is the excellent Alison Mitchell but she\u2019s right. Like Paw Patrol with its six heroic dog characters, only one of whom is female \u2013 also a source of outrage in her life \u2013 this is not an acceptable gender mix.<\/p>\n
I am under no illusions that a key part of the appeal for her is that cricket is television, hours and hours of television that is permitted by her parents, who normally keep screen time reasonably rationed.<\/p>\n
Television on while we\u2019re at the dinner table? Never. During the evening session of the pink ball Test? Absolutely.<\/p>\n
She can\u2019t believe her luck.<\/p>\n
The weirdness of cricket, which I am seeing afresh this season through her eyes, has made me deeply grateful to my parents (and brother and grandad) for indoctrinating me into the sport as a child. I don\u2019t profess to be a cricket expert \u2013 as I\u2019m sure this article will attest \u2013 but I know enough to enjoy it.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a sport with a high bar of entry. I\u2019m sure you can pick up \u201cenjoying cricket\u201d as an adult but, as with learning how to swim, or speak Mandarin, it\u2019s much easier as a kid.<\/p>\n
Maybe it is because of this that I have loved watching my daughter\u2019s nascent love of the game \u2013 the moment she squealed with delight when she watched a batsman hit a cracking four and yelled to us \u201cHe did something good! The referee [sic] went like this!\u201d and waved her arm horizontally in front of her.<\/p>\n
I love, too, the way that cricket can be a salve in an otherwise hard time. This summer, already scarred by violence and tragedy just a few weeks in, cricket has felt for me, I think probably for many, like a small bright spot.<\/p>\n
A flicker of normality in the dark fortnight we have all just lived through. A \u2013 respectfully \u2013 ultimately unimportant contest that has allowed us to have something to cheer about or just quietly follow, at a time our hearts are broken.<\/p>\n
I wonder if this has been part of the appeal for her, too, perceptive as she is.<\/p>\n