Dear Editor,
May I comment on your headline ‘Pietersen says entertainer Gayle would be great for the series’ (SN, May 23). In the article Pietersen is quoted as saying “He [Gayle] is an entertainer. People want to watch entertainers. They don’t want to watch people blocking the ball.” Pietersen was making reference to Shiv Chanderpaul ‘blocking the ball’ in the last sentence.
Let me say I enjoyed watching on TV Chanderpaul ‘blocking the ball’ in the recent First Test match. As a former student of geometry (we did algebra, permutations & combinations, trigonometry, calculus, coordinate geometry in my time – I was a complete dunce at permutations & combinations and was most comfortable at coordinate geometry), I kept watching the bowlers line and angles to Shiv. Every time the line was on his pads he would tuck the ball away to leg side and run. I would murmer “gone with them” and English commentators would squeak with pain. I lay in bed and remembered my old geometry triumphs (congruent triangles!) and enjoyed Chanderpaul “blocking the ball.”
Chanderpaul’s rhythmic monotony of ‘ball on pads tuck to leg side and run’ was very African and while the Englishmen hated it I loved it.
Philosopher Philip Moore said, “the rhythmic monotonous beating of the drums sends some sensations in your mind.” Chanderpaul’s rhythm sent sensations in peoples’ minds. It was like philosopher Philip Moore said.
Yours faithfully,
Tom Dalgety
