Monday, January 23, 2006

Grandad

His First Class record may not have been much to write home about, but I was very surprised when I found his name listed on Cricinfo. I had always known he was a keen cricketer, and had played extensively as a young man before his 'duties to the Empire' took over. I did not know him that well, being only 18, and him having spent the last years of his life fighting alzheimer's. I do remember 'Dev' ,as he was known, sitting on a rocking chair playing marbles with me when I was very small - I was on the floor, and he was rolling them around with his feet. I wish I had been old enough then to ask him about his cricketing days, but I guess that was never to be. In the obituaries when he died, most people remembered the work he did as a Govenor for Mauritius (there is I'm told still a bridge there named after him - "the longest bridge in the Indian Ocean"), and in the West Indies. It is nice that he is still remembered as a cricketer, even if his best scores are not.

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