The Uber Fan

I can remember the year I discovered that I had the wrong idea about deep fine-leg. I had played cricket right through my childhood and followed it enthusiastically on the radio afterwards (and at Feroz Shah Kotla whenever a Test came round), but I didn't know my fielding positions. I thought deep-fine leg stood near the boundary just a few degrees to the left of the keeper. I thought long-leg was deep fine-leg. Why was I so deluded? Because when batsmen glanced the ball past the lunging left hand of the wicket-keeper, radio commentators often used that ready-made phrase, "and he's tickled it fine, just wide of the keeper." Ergo, deep fine-leg.

The point of the story is not my ignorance (naturally) but the holes in the cricketing knowledge of my generation of fans. I can hear readers say, "speak for yourself, loser, I knew the difference between long-leg and deep fine-leg before I was five". I freely admit my special and particular stupidity, but I still think that the generation of fans who grew up after the mid-80s are better informed about cricket that those of us who were socialised into cricket in earlier decades.

The rest of the article can be read on The Week's website, here