Thursday, March 31, 2011

BC and AC

No, not AC/DC.

Historians use BC (before Christ) and AD (Anno Domini or the year of our lord) to refer to different eras of time.

Given the extent to which England's summer game has taken over life in Sri Lanka I think we should use AC and BC; After Cricket and Before Cricket. We can use it to measure the day, instead of AM and and PM.

BC is the few hours before noon when hangovers from the previous game are nursed and whatever shopping for drinks, snacks and other essentials for watching the next match takes place.

Offices may be visited, just to check if the boss is around before haring off to find a tout willing to sell a ticket to the match. In the event the boss is in, people will hang around impatiently, sneaking furtive glances at the clock until he leaves. Strangely, salesmen have many external meetings with clients these days so they have to be out in the field, the office staff have important meetings with bankers, auditors, the tax men and the municipal authorities. Everybody is really busy and can't even answer a phone call, although they are not in the office.

AC is when the streets are deserted and the power consumption zooms as a million television sets are switched on.

The fever has even infected even such resolutely anti-cricket creatures like myself.

Need to see if I can find a cheap ticket for the finals for a friend. Last I heard tickets were going at US$650. Does anyone know if its possible to get anything cheaper?

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