Losing can be winning

Along with many of my fellow Kiwi, I had high hopes that NZ's Black Caps, our national cricket team, may have won their semifinal World Cup match against Sri Lanka. Just maybe... we could beat our record of getting no further than a semifinal.

Alas, it was not meant to be, losing by a rather dismal 81 runs. And the photo above is of captain Stephen Fleming being dismissed after only one run. (He later resigned as captain of the one-day test team.)

Now, this may mean nothing at all to those Yanks who pop in every now and then and peruse this blog. Cricket? Isn't that a chirping insect?

I won't go into the intricacies of this wonderful game, but explain why losing, in this instance, can be a great win.

As many of you may/should know, there's a pretty grim factional spat going on in Sri Lanka with the Sri Lankan Government on one side and the Tamil Tigers on the other. But here's where cricket kept the peace, if for even a few hours. The Government soldiers and Tamil Tiger rebels held a truce yesterday so they could watch their national cricket side beat the Black Caps and thus advance to the World Cup final.

The Tigers held true to their word of not attacking while the cricket was on as they "would be watching the match".

However, it was short-lived as just five hours after the match two policemen were killed in a roadside bomb attack.

So I'm glad (a wee bit) we lost.

Sri Lanka's playing Australia in the final on Sunday (our U.S. Monday). Just imagine if Sri Lanka wins. Could this perhaps mean a longer-lasting truce?

It could be... cricket!