Cricket on Grand Rounds!

This week's edition of Grand Rounds is truly fantastic.

Dr. Crippen (NHS Blog Doctor) has done a phenomenal job.

He begins with a 'thumbnail sketch' of 'cricket, the finest sport in the world' which I think deserves to be recorded in the annals of cricket writing as the 'Zen of Test Match Cricket'.

You have two sides, one out in the field and one in. Each man that's in the side that's in goes out, and when he's out he comes in and the next man goes in until he's out. When they are all out, the side that's out comes in and the side that's been in goes out and tries to get those coming in, out. Sometimes you get men still in and not out.When a man goes out to go in, the men who are out try to get him out, and when he is out he goes in and the next man in goes out and goes in. There are two men called umpires who stay out all the time and they decide when the men who are in are out. When both sides have been in and all the men have been out, and both sides have been out twice after all the men have been in, including those who are not out, that is the end of the game.

Anyone who visits Grand Rounds this week will realize that Dr. Crippen must have spent hours on the design & production.

What is more striking to me is his understanding of the Game and his command over the language. I am willing to bet that he spent almost as much time composing that paragraph as he spent compiling Grand Rounds.

Words fail me in the presence of such prowess.