There’s so much great about being in the stadium to watch a test match. I love getting there early and watching the teams warm up. Kamran, the Pakistani wicket keeper simply has one of the coaching staff hit ball after ball at him and he repeats his crouch, his rise and then the articulation, often acrobatic, necessary for the capture. The repetition and its differentials is wonderful to watch in this condensed form, the art & the work of the reflex is demonstrated.

All the action around the pitch just prior to the commencement of play is also fantastic. A legion of important looking men in suits come and stand around its edge and look at it for a while, and then they leave.

Listening to the sound of the crowd during the match is a very fundamental experience. The noise is a general hub-bub, but out of it rises particular distinctive chants, and the command of these particular sound forms moves throughout the stands. At one time in the day a group here will gain in intensity of communal sound production. At another time it will be over there and then the command passes elsewhere. The chants, in terms of their semantic signification are barely worth engaging with, but hearing the processes of their production and movement from and throughout the general to the particular, the intensities becoming discernible here and there as thresholds are passed over, this is a very exciting and eloquent statement to feel oneself a part of, even if only a very quiet & sober part.