ABSTRACT

Oh cricket! Has ever a sport been the muse of such creativity-be it on the field, in the stands or in letters or art? And it is not just the action on the pitch that has been chronicled creatively: the idle bystander, the cheering spectator in the stands, the viewer glued to the television, the commentator in the box and the statistician who keeps records-all are part of cricketing folklore. If many regard cricket as a way of life, then, for many, their lives revolve around cricket. And literature and cinema have both faithfully recorded the peculiar characteristics of the cricket fan. Nothing illustrates this better than Alfred Hitchcock’s brilliant depiction of the cricket addict in the film The Lady Vanishes. In this 1938 classic, Basil Radford and Naunton Wayne give memorable performances as Charters and Caldicott, a pair of cricket-obsessed Englishmen on holiday whose only goal is to get back to Blighty in time for the Test Match at Manchester. Even as mysterious things happen under their noses, the two remain happily impervious to the situation, more concerned about the weather conditions in England. Through Charters and Caldicott, the master storyteller admirably captures the cricketing ethos of the time.