The ICC Champion’s Trophy final was a long awaited delight yesterday. I used to follow cricket avidly, was even a cricket correspondent for a newspaper for a time. That experience during a historic India-Pakistan series which took much that I found interesting out of the game and replaced it with hype, along with the changes accompanying the rise of the IPL and Twenty20, and finally moving to the UK where finding cricket if one was not surrounded by lovers of the game was difficult, had me drift away. Then with the attacks on the Sri Lankan team cricket left Pakistan and my interest diminished. Players were caught in scandal, the administration in Pakistan and globally was venal and vile, I lost interest completely. Yesterday, the Champion’s Trophy final between India and Pakistan was the first I had followed in a long time. It’s still hard to find live cricket even on radio, so I had to follow the text updates on the Guardian and the BBC. What a match it was. Beautiful play interspersed with farcical ineptness which has been the hallmark of Pakistani cricket as long as I can remember. And what a victory.
Other than that it was a quiet day. The Gentleman Friend and I went to Kampung Baru at iftari to try out of the fabled Ramzaan bazaars. It was frenzied as we arrived 20 minutes before iftari, with hundreds of stalls and people darting around for their meals. Many of the stalls had cleared by the time we arrived but the food we had was disappointing. Two rather poor murtabak – one cold and the other soaked in cheese and bonito, some flavourless otak-otak. The best was a small portion of beef rendang with sticky rice which at least felt wholesome. Ah well, it was a new experience and certainly has not put me off street food or Ramzaan bazaars or anything, though I will spare the GF whose revulsion was so deep as to almost have a moral tinge. I also got some kuih which the GF decided not to have. The bananas grilled in banana leaves were my breakfast and went nicely on sourdough toast, and the little steamed coconut cups will accompany my lunch.