Sports

Cricket World Cup 2015: Before AB de Villiers cried, the skies wept

Gaurav SethiMarch 27, 2015 | 00:42 IST

  • O dear Leonard Cohen
  • Will you lend your voice and words
  • To the loss we're feeling
  • Because all we can do now
  • Is cry
  •  
  • Cry, cry, cry
  • All we can do is cry
  • Cry like we was babies
  • Cry like we was lost
  • Cry like we don't know when we're going home, AB
  • Cry like we don't know when we're going home, baby
  • Cry like we just don't know
  • Oh, what a game this is
  • The very game that makes me live
  • Is the very game that makes me die
  • The very game that makes me high
  • The very game that makes me die
  • Oh, what a game this is
  • The crying game
  •  
  • I cried like a Pup
  • I cried like a captain
  • I cried with AB de Villiers
  • I cried with Michael Clarke
  • I cried with my heart ripped bare
  • I cried for a player I scarcely knew
  • His childhood photographs on my bedside table
  • And I saw him growing up
  • And I saw him going up
  • I saw him fall
  • I saw us all fall
  • I saw that kid from the country
  • His farmer ways
  • I saw him with Warner
  • I saw him on the scoreboard
  • Forever not out
  • Forever, 63* not out
  •  
  • I saw Morne long legs run down at the Kotla
  • I saw Morne scissor balls back down at third man
  • How he made the ball rise on such a passive pitch
  • How he made the ball rise on just any pitch
  • "How the moon hits your eye
  • And the zing bails fly
  • That's a Morne"
  •  
  • I saw Morne as a boy going to school
  • The gentle gawky kid that wouldn't hurt a fly
  • The gentle gawky kid that wouldn't tell a lie
  • Such a good kid, such a straight good kid
  • And that kid sits on the banks of Eden Park
  • In a pool of tears, in a pool of blood, sweat and years
  • Morne Morkel, just sits there and weeps
  • All six foot four inches of him just sits there and weeps
  • That's a Morne
  • "When the moon hits your eye
  • Like a big pizza pie, that's amore"
  • Oh, what a game this is...
  •  
  • The very game that makes me live
  • Is the very game that makes me die
  • The very game that makes me high
  • The very game that makes me die
  • Oh, what a game this is
  • The crying game
  •  
  • AB was everywhere, every fucking where
  • From mid off to mid wicket
  • From a midsummer night's dream to a midlife crisis
  • AB batted in the 40th, AB bowled in the 40th
  • AB aged nine years, he was on to his 40th
  •  
  • AB says
  • I don't know what to do, I am completely at a loss
  • AB says
  • I don't know, I don't even know when we are going home
  • AB says
  • I tried my best to catch it, I didn't
  • AB says
  • As a captain, I'll be there for the guys
  • AB says
  • But life moves on and the sun will come up tomorrow
  • AB says
  • AB sobs
  •  
  • I write to my South African friends
  • I ask them the same question
  • How are you?
  • Antoinette Muller says
  • "Oh I'm fine. They did their best."
  • Sean Wilson says
  • "I'm okay. It's just sport."
  • Sean Simpson says
  • "I am shattered. Drinking nice wine though."
  • Ben Karpinski says
  • "Not well mate. Really not well
  • But hoping your boys can beat Australia on Thursday. That will help things"
  •  
  • The very game that makes me live
  • Is the very game that makes me die
  • The very game that makes me high
  • The very game that makes me die
  • Oh, what a game this is
  • The crying game
  •  
  • Before AB cried, the skies wept.

 

Credits, notes, asides:

"That's Amore" - by Dean Martin (lyrics by Brooks, Jack / Warren, Harry).

"That's a Morne" - by Sean Wilson (@SimplySean on twitter).

It's only after writing this that I discovered that Morne Morkel and I share a birthday. We did not go to the same school, however.

For a lark, picture Leonard Cohen singing "Now so long, Morne, it's time that we began to laugh and cry and cry and laugh about it all again".

Last updated: March 27, 2015 | 00:42
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