Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Primacy

pri⋅ma⋅cy

–noun, plural -cies for 2, 3.
1. the state of being first in order, rank, importance, etc.
2. Also called primateship. English Ecclesiastics. the office, rank, or dignity of a primate.
3. Roman Catholic Church. the jurisdiction of a bishop, as a patriarch, over other bishoprics, or the supreme jurisdiction of the pope as supreme bishop.

Origin:
1350–1400; ME primacie < class="ital-inline">prīmātia, alter. of L prīmātus (prīm(us) prime + -ātus -ate 3 ); see -y 3
Sir Garfield Sobers and Sir Vivian Richards have defended the primacy of Test cricket in the wake of the withering critique launched by Chris Gayle. Richards said Gayle's comments regarding the death of Test cricket were tantamount to a "total betrayal of the game that raised him" and hoped they were not reflective of the West Indian captain's true feelings.
With respect Sir Richards, here is a bit from Chris Gayle's Wikipedia entry
Gayle played for the West Indies at youth international level after he made his first-class debut aged 19 for Jamaica. He played his first One Day International 11 months later, and his first Test match 6 months after that.
Then there is the statement itself of betraying the game that raised him - the game Gayle plays is cricket. Not Test Cricket, not 50 over cricket, not beach cricket, not tennis ball cricket and definitely not one bounce out cricket. There are all manifestations of the game "that raised him", different formats, if you will.
"I believe Chris still loves Test match cricket, and maybe he wouldn't have made these comments if he had been thinking clearly. I honestly feel that this is not what he genuinely believes, and if it is, it is a total betrayal of the game that raised him.
Everyone has his/her preference - just because you choose to like format of the game does not mean that the other formats are in any way inferior. They may be, in your mind, but sweeping generalizations without the data to back it up is also a betrayal - of intelligence and logic.

Phrase

my way or the highway

  1. (mainly US, idiomatic) An expression suggesting an ultimatum which indicates the listener(s) will either conform to the desires of the speaker or else the listener(s) will be excluded
which about sums up the argument for primacy!

6 comments:

jrod said...

This is one of the biggest fart in a tea cup cricket stories in a long time. The English media can't get enough of it. He has never batted like a man who respects test cricket. Which is probably why people like him.

Homer said...

UJ,

Even the "interview", if it can be called that, is nothing but a selective collection of quotes to further an agenda.

"fart in a tea cup cricket" just about sums it :)

Cheers,

Vijay Kumar said...

Between KKR and WI, Gayle has moved from one fractious team to another. Something's got to give...

Homer said...

Vijay Kumar,

I dont know the context in which Gayle said what he said - was he comparing and contrasting his attitudes with those of Strauss or whether he was speaking in absolutes..

Agree about the fractured nature of the two teams but I dont think that prompted this particular storm in the tea cup :)

Cheers,

Anonymous said...

My feeling is Gayle's comments were meant to be a retaliation for Strauss's.

From Cricinfo:
"I wouldn't be so sad [about the demise of Test cricket]," Gayle said. "Some other players would be. Maybe Andrew Strauss would be sad. Maybe he will be sad if Test cricket dies and Twenty20 comes in. Because there is no way he can make the change. So tough luck. I like Twenty20. Who doesn't? Maybe a couple of the Englishmen wouldn't like to play Twenty20." Basically, he wanted to get back at Strauss by pointing out that Strauss is one of the endangered species, while he himself will be well settled whatever the future of Cricket may be.

Homer said...

Anonymous,

I think so too, but unless the Guardian print the interview in full, we can only speculate the context of Gayle's statements.

Bereft of a context, the amount of trees being sacrificed to prove a point either ways is astounding.

Thanks for your comments and welcome to the blog.
Cheers,