In his short book entitled, ‘The Abolition of Man’, C.S. Lewis had some interesting things to say about how the focus of what science seeks to do has changed over time.
Whereas scientists once sought knowledge in order to understand how humankind conformed to reality, Lewis suggested that, for science, the problem had become ‘how to subdue reality to the wishes of men’. Furthermore, he contended, there were great dangers inherent in such an ambition.
Lewis believed that it would be those with power who would impose their wishes on the weak, and maintained that any attempt to subdue reality to the wishes of the powerful would require nature to be conquered in order that it conformed to their desires. That, he said, would require a reducing of all of nature to nothing but it’s component parts, denying anything beyond the merely physical, and quantifying everything only in terms of what could be measured.
Lewis concluded that, since humanity is itself a part of nature, this diminishing of the whole would ultimately diminish humanity itself, and bring about what he called the ‘abolition of man’.
And so I find myself asking if Lewis has anything to say to us regarding what we now see happening in the world of cricket.
Because if Lewis is right, and rather than contentedly taking their place in their world of cricket in order to simply enjoy it for the marvellous game that it is, there are those who now seek to subdue the sport for the benefit of a select few, we might reasonably expect there to be dangers as a result of their ambitions too.
We might, for example, see the powerful imposing their wishes on the week. We might see them losing sight of the rich complexity of the game as they reduce the game to its component parts, dumbing it down and denying its beauty whilst recognising only what they themselves want to measure – namely who won, and how much money was made.
Such a state of affairs would indeed diminish, not only those who play cricket, but also the game of cricket itself.
Because, what is all too obvious for those who have eyes to see, is that cricket is about so much more than who won what when. And as anybody who has watched the excellent TV series, ‘Freddie Flintoff’s Field of Dreams’, it’s about so much more than merely making money.
From time to time, it is, of course, nice to win. But just as a life of perpetual ease isn’t good for us, making us lazy and self satisfied whilst denying us the opportunity to suffer and so develop endurance, character and hope, winning all the time isn’t good for us either. As well as making us arrogant and proud, it denies us the benefits of defeat.
Life is stressful enough with all its constant demands on us to always have to succeed. We need cricket to be different – a place where the weak are as welcome as the strong, where hard fought defeat is applauded as warmly as exhilarating victory, and good old fashioned sportsmanship is valued above all else. These things, and not financial gain, should be our bottom line.
So I think Lewis was right when he wrote what he did back in 1943. More right, perhaps, than even he envisaged as, eighty years on, the relentless pursuit of the tangible, threatens to end with our wonderfully, ineffable game, slipping slowly through our fingers.
And what a travesty that would be – to witness the abolition of county cricket.
Other cricket blogs, with an inevitable bias towards Somerset. Those towards the top of the list particularly relate to the threat to county cricket.
To read ‘Is Cricket Amusing Itself to Death’, click here
To read ‘A Cricketing Christmas Carol’, click here
To read ‘Scooby Doo and the Mystery of the Deseted Cricket Ground’, click here
To read ‘A Tale of Two Tons’, click here
To read ‘A Cricket Taunt’, click here
To read ‘Brian and Stumpy visit The Repair Shop’, click here
To read ‘I’ve got a little CRICKET list’, click here
To read ‘The Great Cricket Sell Off’, click here
To read ‘How the Grinch stole from county cricket…or at least tried to’. click here
To read ‘Frodo and the Format of Power’, click here
To read ‘One Fine Day’, click here
To read ‘A Purr-fect day at the cricket’, click here
To read ‘Safe and Sound at the County Ground, Taunton’, click here
To read ‘First of the Summer Wine’, click here
To read ‘sharing the important things: on introducing your grandchild to cricket’, click here
To read ‘Cigarettes, Singles, and Sipping Tea with Ian Botham: Signs of a Well Spent Youth!’, click here
To read ‘Bazball, Bazchess, Bazlife’, click here
To read ‘Lewis Calpaldi – Retired Hurt?’, click here
To read ‘Online criticism: it’s just not cricket’, click here
To read ‘Twas the week of the final’, click here
To read ‘Worth Every Penny’, click here
To read ‘for the third time of asking, CRICKET’S COMING HOME…surely’, click here
To read ‘Cricket: It’s All About Good Timing’, click here
To read ‘At Season’s End’, click here
To read ‘A Historic Day’, click here
To read ‘On passing a village cricket club at dusk one late November afternoon’ click here
To read ‘Cricket – through thick and thin’, click here
To read ‘A Shady News Story’, click here
To read ‘A Song for Brian’, click here
To read ‘My love is not a red, red rose , click here
To read ‘Stumpy – a legend reborn’, click here
To read ‘A Cricket Tea Kind of a Day’, click here
To read ‘A Day at the Cricket’, click here
To read ‘How Covid-19 stole the the cricket season’, click here
To read ‘Life in the slow lane’, click here
To read ‘If Only’, click here
To read ‘Eve of the RLODC limericks’ click here
To read ‘Somerset v Nottinghamshire T20 Quarter Final 2023’, click here
To read ‘It’s coming home…’, click here
To read ‘A Song for Ben Green’, click here
To read ‘Enough Said…’, the last section of which is cricket related, click here
A Jack Leach Trilogy:
To read ‘For when we can’t see why’, click here
To read ‘WWJD – What would Jack Do?’, click here
To read ‘On Playing a Blinder’, click here
To read ‘Coping with Disappointment’, click here
And now a couple of cricket blogs with a theological flavour
To read ‘WWFD – what would Freddie do?’, click here
To read ‘Somerset CCC – Good for the soul’, click here
To read ‘Longing for the pavilion whilst enjoying a good innings’, click here
One other related blog:
To read ‘The Abolition of General Practice
Some musings 