So when cricket makes an appearance, the USbased cricket fan reacts with an emotion that is a curious mix of pleasure, relief, and sometimes, a giddy determination to make the most of it. These reactions can be occasioned by many prompts: rare access to a live televised game, a snippet of a cricket score that miraculously found its way into the back pages of a local newspaper (perhaps thanks to a diligent, cosmopolitan, sports reporter), an impromptu game thrown together by a few enthusiasts, and of course, most pleasurably, the chance to watch a game in the company of other aficionados. In the twentyfive years I have lived in the US, I have sampled some of these pleasures; they have served to provide me some of the most pleasant memories of my time here..You'd probably have to go back to 1997 to find a draft like this one. That's the year Peyton Manning eschewed the prospect of going to the Jets first overall to play for Bill Parcells and returned for his senior year at Tennessee.