Fortunately, I met many people from the sub-coninent, who after peeping discretely at my badge, looked me in the eyes and said, “Mumbai!” Magic!

Can’t quite relate to office atmospheres but I do go to college , where 66% of the students are female , so it is difficult to talk about anything else apart from clothes, other girls, other boys, yet more clothes, jewellery, stupid celeb gossip, make up, studies and then all of this over and over again …There are handfull of us crazy female but we get outnumbered amongst the rest, nevertheless we do try initiating discussions on cricket every know and then, but rarely do they go anything beyond Shahid Afridi, or how stupid Sami’s hair is. But yeah, whenever we do well against India, there’s a lot of talk, even if it is just on the lines of oh we won, we played well, we kicked ass.. bla bla. And nothing beyond that. The lads are the opposite though, except for the ones that aren’t from Pakistan, each and every knows their crikcet inside out, greatest thing about this I that I never have to spend a single penny on getting SMS score updates if we’re forced to follow a game during college, the lads spend all the money! Hehe.

What’s more we even talk cricket with our teachers…very useful this can be, you know. Like this Monday, I got away with submitting a journal a period late because I told my maam I was watchiing the SA-AUS game on the weekend, and because she’s a total cricket nut like me (some of my friends joke that she even looks like me, which isn’t true of course) she allowed me 25 extra minutes to get my work submitted! Great, no?

The thing about cricket is, it is the richest sport going for conversation. Talking (and reading) cricket will always be more rewarding than football, rugby etc. You’ve got the physical skills of the game itself to indulge in: bowling, batting, fielding. The genres of the skills, the history, the present day, your own playing experiences. I could go on.

I think what binds us all sub-consciously is recognition of the mental pressures required to succeed in cricket. Whether you’re 11 years old opening the batting for your primary school, you’re Scott Boswell, you’re David Gower seemingly care-free, or you’re Steve Waugh going out to face Ambrose and Walsh in Kingston, having been labelled a cheat – how will your technique and talent, stand the test? It is a team game, but at the moments that count, you are on your own. There’s nowhere to hide when you’re running into bowl, waiting underneath a skier, or taking guard. That’s the back story to every article and conversation, as far as I’m concerned – that’s why strangers of grown men get so much pleasure comparing actions in the street.

Alan, we need to run into each other. Where in the States are you?

Wraye, what IS your story? You have me piqued.

If people like me don’t have any access to cricket pitches in the future how bad will the England team become? Will the current generation be the best for a while? Looking back on other sports like football the best players tend to come from poor backgrounds because of the desire to succeed that they have. If only middle-class boys play cricket then will they ever have as strong a competitive edge?

Of course the only woman in the office who has no comprehension of any sport at all apart from figure skating (thats another story) won the lot.

On the other side of the coin though, when I first joined my club, there was huge surprise that little me, a woman, could discuss cricket. They’re used to me by now.

And my own spin bowling problems are much more basic – 1/3 of the time it goes wide, 1/3 of the time it doesn’t turn. Which is why I pretty much gave up on spin.

Will – Having also been in a Cricinfo office for a fairly long [by dotcom standards], I know how it feels. I always pitied the chap who worked there just for the money without really understanding & enjoying cricket. There were quite a few! Work pretty much came to a standstill during the VVS-RD partnership at Calcutta as well as during the final stages of that game. The WC99 Aus-RSA semi was also a game where we had an Aussie doing the comms from the office [in Chennai!] and we all celebrated the win!

I don’t know how you attempt to quantify your question. But here’s a rough guess.

9 out of ten British males, love football, and one in ten is gay.

2 out of ten males love rugby and the other 8 went to comprehensive schools.

3 out of ten males love cricket and we’re just genetically superior.

And then came the Ashes…… and now;

9 out of ten males love cricket but still only 3 out of ten understand it.

6 out of ten males have now lied about “getting a trial with Northants when I was a lad”

Within 5 years, 2 out of ten county cricket clubs will have “united” appendaged to their names.

Cricket hooliganism will be a real problem by 2013.

And when Duncan Fletcher retires, Clive Woodward will be competing with Sven Goran Ericsson for the job.