I was at work all day today so I didn’t get to see any of Gilchrist’s magnificence, but I was assured of the intensity of this magnificence by the fact that a friend called me at work to tell me about it, twice. It was an innnings that needed to be shared, possibly the most attractively vicious innings in the history of world cricket. A vicious production of a pure gift to the earth. Apparently Ponting made a double century.

An innings that needed to be shared, that demanded friendship, that created an atmosphere of camaraderie throughout the world. The bonds of attraction formed and exploited today at the scg, those bonds between the bowlers and Gilchrist – it is likely that Danish found bowling to Gilchrist irresistible – the bonds between Ronting what’s his name and Gilchrist, the crowd in bondage, all these bonds whose power reverberated from an intensive point at the scg and dispersed globally to touch the population, these are the bonds of community, of love and joy that cricket exists to produce. When the Gilchist part is functioning like this the dirigible is so shiny & efficent.