Cricket & Tobacco: A Match Made on a True Pitch

I have many more enthusiasms than convictions (in any sense of the word) but I am certain about some things and enthusiastically so. Cricket and tobacco, for instance. They’re as natural a fit as ham and eggs. If the government really wants to clamp down upon smoking they should probably consider banning cricket – for in no other sport does Lady Nicotine provide such a useful, nay vital, service.

There are the cigarettes you smoke when you’re waiting to bat and the wicket looks a little lively and the other mobs’ fast bowler has a vindictive look about him and you’re just hoping that he’ll have exhausted his allotted overs by the time you shuffle in to bat or that, failing this, you’ll be out before the bastard comes back. These might be considered fretting cigarettes.

Then there are the tabs you consume after you’ve played a damned silly shot and been dismissed in single figures for the sixth seventh consecutive innings.