New Kid on the Blockhole

GH welcomes a cricketer young enough to be his grandson

‘Something about youth in the field appeals to cricket-goers above all else,’ averred Ray Robinson.

Regardless of race or clime, you notice the crowd’s interest quicken when a very young player appears, the encouraging applause for his slightest success, the sympathetic murmur if he fails. All the young onlookers are his allies, and the older men re-live through his presence their own youthful ambitions.

It’s as true now as it was seventy years ago, when Ray Robbie deployed the proposition as a motif in Green Sprigs (1954), which specifically concerns cricket’s young and younger. For evidence look no further than Vaibhav Suryavanshi, who debuted last night for Rajasthan Royals against Lucknow Super Giants aged 14 years and 23 days in the Indian Premier League.