Long shadows

摘要

Few games inspire as many warm feel-ings-even among those who know nothing about it—as cricket does. Sir John Major, a former prime minister who was not famous for his eloquence, knew he was tugging on safe chords when he predicted that Britain would remain a place of "long shadows on cricket grounds, warm beer, invincible green suburbs [and] dog lovers." And in almost every place where the Union flag has flown, from Greece's Ionian islands to the North-West Frontier, cricket is a more enduring legacy than beverages of any temperature.