'Owen' and Sachin

There's this colleague of mine ... let's call him 'Owen'. Now 'Owen' is a regular kind of guy. Likeable, interesting, but certainly not a cricket fan. In all the months I have worked with him, I have never talked about the great game with him, not once. Indeed, such is his level of ignorance that he revealed to me this morning that he didn't know the difference between a four and a six. You get the picture.

And yet this morning something very strange happened. As I wandered past his desk, he accosted me with the following phrase - "so what do you think about that cricketer then, the one who broke the record?" I stopped and stared. 'Owen', the man who doesn't know that batsmen bat in pairs, was talking to me about Sachin Tendulkar.

Such is the cultural reach of the Little Master, it seems there are now few people left on the planet unaware of his deeds. If 'Owen' knows (Tendulkar is 'trending' on Twitter apparently), then everyone knows. After yesterday's scarcely-credible double century confirmed his status as the greatest of all modern batsmen, Sachin (below) has finally transcended the sport.



So I did a double take, drank a glass of water, and sat down. I then shook my head in a comically vigorous fashion, and talked cricket with 'Owen' for the next five minutes. Life in the office will never be the same again.