The 1000th post

According to the Blogger dashboard, this is my 1000th post on Eye on Cricket. It has taken me a bloody long time. I started Eye on Cricket in December 2004 (inspired by Amit Varma's 23 Yards over at Cricinfo). I posted twice in December 2004: the first post was a discussion of the India-Australia series (including the reproduction of an email to my friend Joe in Sydney), and the second was a quirky complaint about Indian batsmen. Then I didn't post for a whole year. I think that is a record in bloggin absences that will take some beating.

I started blogging again in December 2005 (with a tongue in cheek post wondering how long it would take before Danish Kaneria would convert to Islam.) Returning to blogging was helped by my purchasing a subscription to watch the Australia-RSA series on broadband video. Having live cricket at hand helped writing, as did the Ganguly furore. Since then, I have blogged on and off, sometimes with gaps as long as a couple of weeks induced by laziness and disorganization, sometimes longer because of vacations. I've thought of packing up the blog at times as I feel like it has taken on a life of its own, but instead, I've started blogging more. First at Cricinfo's Different Strokes and now at the Faster Times Cricket page. I write longer pieces for those blogs and shorter ones here. When I'm watching a match I tend to write more here; little short expostulations if you will. I'm sometimes intemperate in what I say. I'm pretty positive that those displays of intemperateness will happen here.

I've enjoyed all the discussions I've had here with all of the folks that have read and commented. I haven't been a good blogger in responding to comments speedily enough, and I deeply regret that. Thanks very much for reading and for commenting. I've also had a great time interacting with other bloggers (who show up in my blogroll to the right). I've learned a great deal from these folks. The standard of cricket writing available on blogs is very high; it says something about how the world of cricketing journalism has changed that I run to read blogs, not newspapers, after a game is over.

I'm not sure, after all these years, what I think of blogging. Perhaps its all just sound bites. But that can't be, because some bloggers I know produce very thoughtful, sensible, well-constructed pieces (like Homer over at Two Cents, who can become quasi-academic as he rushes off to establish a particularly keenly felt point, or David Mutton at Silly Mid-off, who is also amazingly prolific). I'd like to produce those kinds of posts all the time. But sometimes, like I said, all I can do is expostulate. Perhaps this is a distraction from the 'real work' I should be doing. But sometimes this helps me deal with day to day responsibilities.

In the end, blogging on cricket has let me stay in touch with the game I love the most, and with others who love the game. That is all it was supposed to do, I think. And for that I'm truly grateful.

Please keep reading and commenting.