Dr Bruce Manners
Senior minister
Avondale College Seventh-day Adventist Church
Australia won the first of the seven one-day cricket matches against England last night (Sunday). After the summer of cricket we’ve had to this point, that’s worthy of mention.
In case you missed it, Shane Watson was the hero. Chasing a huge total (294), he was 161 not out at the end of the match. Fittingly, he hit the final runs for the win. Needing four, he hit the first ball of the last over for six.
His innings has already been recognised as one of the greats in the 40-year history of one-day international cricket.
Watson is from Ipswich, one of the Queensland towns hit by the recent floods. His family is fine, but he has friends who’ve been affected by the flood. After the match, he said his mind hadn’t really been on the cricket. It was on the flood devastation.
He’s going back to Ipswich for a couple of days. “It’s going to be nice to be able to get up there and feel like I can help out in some way,” he told reporters.
In speaking of his game, he said, “It really does free your mind when you’re thinking about other things and it does put the game of cricket into perspective for what it really is.”
It’s just a game.
Much recent discussion has been about the failure of Australian cricket and the crisis it’s in—who should be sacked, who should replace them on the team and in administration. It’s as if this is a national crisis.
National pride may have been dented, but putting it in perspective, it’s just a game. Of course, we want our team to win, but in the big picture, there are more important things.
Understanding perspective is important for living a life of significance.
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