Pippa Middleton explains the British pastime of cricket exactly how you think she would.
“A batsman goes out and is then in until he gets out,” Middleton writes in her second “dispatch” for Vanity Fair. “This goes on until the last batsman is out, apart from one who is still in and therefore not out.”
Middleton’s simply worded phrasing sounds a lot like the parody Twitter account @Pippatips that pokes fun at the writer’s obvious party themes in her book “Celebrate.”
Also in her Vanity Fair spread, the new aunt to Prince George qualifies her expertise of the sport by saying, “As a former member of the cricket WAGs (wives and girlfriends of players), I have many happy memories of afternoons spent lying on the grass and hearing the satisfying clunk of leather ball on willow bat.”
She does, however, admit that she’s just a spectator of the sport: “I’m afraid that, unlike with tennis, my relationship with cricket is merely from the sidelines.”
“The thing is,” she adds, “you don’t have to understand it to enjoy it. In my experience, it’s safer not to pretend to know the rules and just take pleasure in the visual spectacle—not only the men in flanneled whites (though this does help) but also the ageless trappings and the sense of Englishness about it all.”
Continuing on the subject of cricket uniforms, Middleton gushes, “From Imran Khan to England’s current captain, Alastair Cook, there is a tradition of the sultry cricketer powering in from the boundary or effortlessly gliding a ball to the boundary, tousled hair blowing in the breeze, his whites signifying a purity of action—oops, I almost forgot myself. Better have a cup of tea.”
The column – appearing in the September issue of the glossy – also includes a glossary of the game’s unique lingo and tips on what to bring to a match. Unfortunately, there wasn’t a peep about Pippa’s royal nephew (which might have been on American readers’ minds more than cricket).