Attitudes to cricket

I read Richard Boock's article in the New Zealand Herald this morning and then I read Peter Roebuck's column in the Sydney Morning Herald. This got me to thinking.

Boock's article is entitled "Tour so far produces more questions than answers" and Roebuck's is entitled "Captain's knock fails to make the young guns fire". Both then are clearly intended as critical pieces. However, Roebuck gets distracted from his stated purpose (pointing out the failings of Australia's newest cricketers) by his clear love of spectacle and his pleasure at seeing performances as good as those given by Ricky Ponting and Corey Collymore. Roebuck's writing can't help but reflect this enjoyment and admiration. In contrast Boock's piece is such a tightly bound knot of negativity that you have to wonder if he actually likes cricket at all. There is absolutely no sense of pleasure in his writing. He reminds me of a smoker who wants to quit but finds himself outside in the rain sucking on a cancer-stick despite himself. I suspect Boock can't not watch New Zealand play cricket, although he has grown to hate it.