Some thoughts on cricket, on the eve of the deciding Ashes Test

"How can you tell your wife you are just popping out to play a match and then not come back for five days?"

- Rafael Benitez, manager of Liverpool FC, struggles to understand cricket


"Cricketers don't spit. Women really hate that."

- The Guardian's chief sports writer Richard Williams posits his theory that not spitting is the chief reason why more women are seeming to prefer cricket to football


"It's much better than being a footballer - in that game half the nation hates you because you play for the wrong club. That must be hell."

- Rachael Flintoff, England all-rounder Andrew Flintoff's wife, has a better reason why she prefers cricket to football