When not to Skype your wife
Neil Manthorp, in his column in SuperCricket , recalls a humorous anecdote involving Michael Atherton, the former England captain and the Times' chief cricket correspondent, during the South Africa Test series.
ESPNcricinfo staff
25-Feb-2013
Neil Manthorp, in his column in SuperCricket, recalls a humorous anecdote involving Michael Atherton, the former England captain and the Times' chief cricket correspondent, during the South Africa Test series.
Forty-five minutes after a day's Test cricket is usually the most tense of the day in the press box. Match reporters are flat out and the 'quotes men' have just arrived back from the press conference, tense and anxious to meet deadlines. It is the quietest time of the day, the most prevalent sound being the hurried, two-fingered bashing of laptop keyboards. Suddenly, a disembodied woman's voice was echoing loudly around the box. "...And don't forget you promised to drop the kids off at Grandma's, and we've got dinner at John and Noreen's tomorrow night, and..."
"How do I turn the volume down?" whispered an anxious Athers. "The whole press box can hear you...shhhh!" There is a time to Skype your wife, and there is a time not to Skype your wife.
Ashok Ganguly is an editorial assistant at Cricinfo