Fun and games serve meaningful purpose

So, what’s sport all about, then? What is it for? Why do we do it? What does it mean? I’ve been trying out various answers over the 32 years I’ve been writing for this newspaper, and I think it’s only right to leave you with just one more. So let’s take two games of father-son cricket.

I always think of Mike Atherton when I play cricket in the garden. His son Josh is, not unexpectedly, a promising cricketer. Athers has talked to me about the parental questions he must answer: the need to walk the line between indifference and pushiness, always supporting, never forcing.

I have never seen them at their net sessions down at the local cricket club, but I have imagined the scene