Imagine there was something of infinite value – a precious jewel that, though only just out of reach, could only be obtained if you were able to give your complete attention to a simple task that would make it yours to keep.
Would you, I wonder, be able to claim the prize?
Because according to ‘Stolen Focus’, the book by Johann Hari that I’ve been reading this week, it seems likely that most of us wouldn’t. Why? Well, because of our ever-decreasing attention spans that are the result of us now being constantly distracted – principally by the electronic devices that so many of us have become so dependent on.
By which I mean addicted to.
The book gives a fascinating insight into what we are allowing to happen to our brains – one that is both sobering to read and something of a wake-up call for those of us who, with the latest smartphone in our pocket, believe we’re living the dream but are in fact sleepwalking into a more disaffected tomorrow. Because having promised to connect us with the whole world, what they have delivered has left us only more isolated and alone.
And in case anyone was wondering if I’m pointing a finger, I most certainly am. But first and foremost at myself – someone who is very much aware, not only of how I am more easily distracted than I used to be, but also of the obvious irony that, in the unlikely event of anyone reading as far as this, they have almost certainly done so on a social media platform – one of the increasing number that are, perhaps, most responsible for our growing inability to concentrate that, if we care to notice it, many of us are currently experiencing.
Last week I heard Grayson Perry and, if memory serves, Michael Rosen on Radio 4. They were being asked about the effects of the proposed social media ban for under 16s. And, interestingly, they both spoke of the importance of boredom as a stimulus for their own creativity – how taking time out allowed them to think and, in so doing, gave opportunity for original ideas to emerge.
All of which leads me to wonder if, in our desperate attempt to remain constantly amused – a word meaning ‘entertained’ but which might equally be taken to mean ‘without thought’ – we will lose what it is to both produce and enjoy art in all its many forms. And whether that will inevitably result, not only in us leading less interesting lives, but in becoming increasingly diminished ourselves.
In stark contrast to our relatively superficial thought life, Hari talks in his book about what he calls ‘flow’ – by which he means that blissful feeling we experience when we are ‘in the zone’ – fully focused on something that we are more than happy to give our full attention to.
But in order for us to find ourselves in such a sublime state, Hari, referencing the work of Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, says there are three conditions that need to be met. Firstly we have to have a single goal – because multitasking as a means of greater efficiency has now been shown to be a myth which, rather than increasing productivity, actually achieves the complete opposite. Secondly that goal that Hari suggests we require is one that we must find meaningful. And thirdly, the thought that we are engaged in has to stretch us a little, taking us into areas of understanding that might be new to us and in which we might not normally feel comfortable.
And so the question inevitably arises: what, if any, of our life goals might come anywhere close to meeting these suggested requirements?
The possible answers to that question are no doubt many and varied, differing according to each individual’s particular interests. But for me, and perhaps you, one of the more obvious would be cricket – specifically the four-day county game which includes periods of play that are sometimes slow but which, far from tedious, allow time for variation and, as a result, make matches much more interesting.
Furthermore these are games played by players you are familiar with, those who, for the most part, have been part of your team for years. And so they are games played by people you care about. This is in stark contrast to franchise competitions whose truncated games tend towards homogeneity and where the team you are encouraged to support, despite largely having the same name each year, are made up of a markedly different set of players.
You are therefore less invested in ‘your team’ and, as a consequence, less likely to stick with them through thick and thin. More than that though you are hard pressed to give any individual game your full attention, such are the distractions that you’ll quite literally be bombarded with – be that the music that incessantly spews out over the public address system, the big-screen crowd games designed to amuse (there’s that word again) or the prospect of a promotional T-shirt being thrown in your face, in all probability whilst a camera is being pointed directly at you. It’s almost as if the promoters of such tournaments have no confidence in what they would no doubt call their ‘product’ – it’s almost as if they know the format they’re espousing needs to be concealed with colourful but ultimately meaningless sideshows, due to its own inherent lack of depth.
There are of course more significant things than even county cricket – and I’m not talking here of Test matches which, for me at least, have become less interesting as a result of games no longer being shown on terrestrial television, and players rarely now playing for their counties. The result of these changes has been the ordinary supporter rarely has a chance now to watch international players in action – a ‘development’ that I would suggest has been ultimately detrimental to the sport as a whole.
But be that as it may, at a time when genuinely important events are ever before us, when global conflicts and natural disasters wreak havoc in the lives of millions, and our own individual lives are themselves fraught with difficulties and distress, it seems a shame that the future of county cricket should continue to be threatened by those who are only interested in how much money can be made from it.
Because in these days when we have much we need to think about, pay attention to, and concentrate on, the opportunity afforded by the four-day game to practice these essential skills might just be of more value than most people appreciate – making county cricket a precious jewel that we can’t afford to let slip through our fingers.
Other cricket related posts:
To read ‘The true meaning of cricket’, click here
Cricketing blogs from 2025:
To read ‘The Untold Story of Finals’ Day’, click here
To read ‘Only A Day Away’, click here
To read ‘No smoke without fire’, click here
To read ‘Importantly, why cricket doesn’t matter’, click here
To read ‘I Spy Somerset’s 150th Anniversary Season’, click here
To read ‘A Spring Watch’, click here
Cricketing blogs from 2024:
To read ‘Reasons to be cheerful’, click here
To read ‘First of the Summer Wine’, click here
To read ‘Safe and Sound at the County Ground, Taunton’, click here
To read ‘Is Cricket Amusing Itself to Death’, click here
To read ‘A Purr-fect day at the cricket’, click here
To read ‘Worth Every Penny’, click here
To read ‘The Somerset Cricket Emporium – 2024’, click here
To read ‘One Fine Day’, click here
To read ‘WWFD – what would Freddie do?’, click here
To read ‘A Shady News Story’, click here
To read ‘The Abolition of County Cricket’, click here
Cricketing blogs from 2023:
To read ‘20 Things we have learnt this summer’, click here
To read ‘When rain stops play’, click here
To read ‘Only a game’, click here
To read ‘The Hundred: is cricket amusing itself to death?’, click here
To read ‘The Somerset Cricket Emporium – 2023’, click here
To read ‘for the third time of asking, CRICKET’S COMING HOME…surely’, click here
To read ‘Twas the week of the final’, click here
To read ‘Sharing the important things: on introducing your grandchild to cricket’, click here
To read ‘Somerset v Nottinghamshire T20 Quarter Final 2023’, click here
To read ‘Breaking News’, click here
To read ‘Lewis Calpaldi – Retired Hurt?’, click here
To read ‘Cricket: It’s All About Good Timing’, click here
To read ‘Bazball, Bazchess, Bazlife’, click here
To read ‘Online criticism: it’s just not cricket’, click here
To read ‘Cigarettes, Singles, and Sipping Tea with Ian Botham: Signs of a Well Spent Youth!’, click here
To read ‘A Historic Day’, click here
To read ‘Cricket – through thick and thin’, click here
To read ‘Stumpy: A Legend Reborn’, click here
To read ‘my love is NOT a red, red rose’, click here
Cricketing blogs from previous years:
To read ‘A Cricketing Christmas Carol: A Ghost Story’, click here
To read ‘Scooby Doo and the Mystery of the Deseted Cricket Ground’, click here
To read ‘Brian and Stumpy visit The Repair Shop’, click here
To read ‘A Tale of Two Tons’, click here
To read ‘A Song for Brian’, click here
To read ‘A Somerset Cricket Players Emporium 2022’ click here
To read ‘A Cricket Taunt’, click here
To read ‘A Song for Brian’, click here
To read ‘At Season’s End’, click here
To read ‘A Day at the Cricket’, click here
To read ‘The Great Cricket Sell Off’, click here
To read ‘On passing a village cricket club at dusk one late November afternoon’ click here
To read ‘How the Grinch stole from county cricket…or at least tried to’. click here
To read ‘How Covid-19 stole the the cricket season’, click here
To read ‘A Cricket Tea Kind of a Day’, click here
To read ‘Life in the slow lane’, click here
To read ‘Frodo and the Format of Power’, click here
To read ‘If Only’, click here
To read ‘I’ve got a little CRICKET list’, click here
To read ‘Eve of the RLODC limericks’ 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 to finish – a couple with a theological flavour
To read ‘Somerset CCC – Good for the soul’, click here
To read ‘Longing for the pavilion whilst enjoying a good innings’, click here
Some musings 