Across the pond, it's hands across the water as Militant Moderate's Ken Owen is back with the Sportblog Roundup. What I like about this, revived after a short absence, is that it attempts to pull together sports blog posts from around the world, without the sniggering irony and cliches that sometimes greet sports like soccer on our side of the Atlantic (which is why I refused to bother with that Dave Eggers piece on America not understanding soccer earlier this month, surely one of the most overcooked of topics), or "gridiron", say, on their side.
So I was delighted to find this post in the midst of that post, Mezba on the superstitions and self-importance we attach to sports events:
During the 1999 World Cup, Bangladesh vs Pakistan, every time I would check Cricinfo for the scores and keep the live score window running, Bangladesh would lose a wicket. When I closed the browser window we would do good. I was convinced it was my browser that was costing Bangladesh wickets. So I walked away from the computer and checked the scores after the game. It worked - we won.
Yeah, I'm as bad as anyone else when it comes to this kind of stuff, insisting on wearing a Browns jersey when they're on TV and I'm watching -- white for home, brown for away, the way it used to be when they were actually, well, good. Not that it helps them like Mezba did here, but ... maybe it will, someday.
To top it off, Mezba is from ... Toronto.
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