ANZAC cricket

It is a couple of days' late, but here is something to commemerate ANZAC day. Most New Zealanders know the famous photo of soldiers playing cricket at Gallipoli in 1915, but did you know that there is a story behind that picture? According to this transcript of an old ABC Radio programme the game was played to distract the Turks while ANZAC Cove was evacuated. The "pitch" was about the only place on ANZAC Cove that was both flat and out of sniper range (but not artillery!).

The transcript is interesting for more than just that snippet though. It goes on to talk about the importance of cricket as a symbol for everything British and Australasian troops were fighting for in both world wars - to quote one speaker, "things like fair play, or the rule of law, and accepting the umpire's decision and playing within the rules, and the never-say-die attitude which cricket was seen to represent, was clung to very firmly, and well, I suppose, lovingly." The programme also goes on to tell some classic wartime cricket tales.