Scrapbooks to Wisden to Denmark

The very venerable Norm, of normblog fame, is an utter cricket nut - more, perhaps, than me. But not more than some of my colleages at Cricinfo (hello Gnasher!). Please now go and read his post, because it’s really very interesting. Norm has kept scrapbooks of his thoughts on the game stretching back some 50 years (double my age, which is a frightening thought - although it does confirm and reassure me that I’m actually still rather young). In one of them was this (Norm - please shout if you’re not happy with me copying this):

A pleasantly informal ceremony was performed in Bulawayo last night when Percy Mansell, who celebrated his 21st year of representative cricket for Rhodesia by scoring 50 runs against the Australians earlier this month, was presented with a gramophone record recalling the performance. A disc had been cut by the FBS in Salisbury from the broadcast commentary, and in the Bulawayo FBS studios, Mansell is seen receiving the record from studio manager Tom Pile. Looking on are (left) Rhodesia Cricket Union president Barrie Day, and broadcaster Claus Toksvig, one of the commentators on the disc.

Now then, Toksvig rang a bell with Mr Norm (as it did with me) and of course we were reminded of Sandi, a witty comedienne whose family originate from Denmark (boring aside: she’s a fairly regular panelist of I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue and Just a Minute, two fabtastic radio shows). Lo and behold, Claus Toksvig is her Father!

(Non-cricketing aside, which is related to this post). She actually stated on TV that Denmark’s newspaper, Jyllands-Posten, never published cartoons depicting Mohammed (you’ll remember the storm which brewed earlier this month). Oddly, she backtracked on her comments the following day and wrote a very fine and balanced piece about the whole affair, at The Telegraph, which is well worth a read.

No further comment. The point of Norm’s post, and this one, albeit tenuously, is that cricket connects people in the most bizarre of ways.

Will Luke writes for Cricinfo.com and edits The Corridor of Uncertainty