Anthony McGowan on Walking in Cricket and Ethics

I enjoyed this piece in the Guardian on walking in cricket (a batter admitting that they’re out), related to various schools of philosophy. There’s an awful lot to agree with (e.g. “although Plato is perhaps the most revered of all philosophers, I think he’s wrong on almost every important issue”) but there’s a few I’d quibble over.

The stoics, for example, are put down as batters who would stay quiet due to their faith in fate. But I’d say their focus on justice and courage would make them walk. I’d also argue that Kant isn’t "the greatest of all philosophers" and that his ethics, especially as he interpreted them in his own beliefs (e.g. "The race of the whites contains all talents and motives in itself”), are a rather mixed bag.

Still, that’s applying a nitpicky focus on a piece that ties together two things I enjoy - philosophy and cricket - and isn’t intended as an academic thesis. I enjoyed it and it made me wonder which category I’d fall in to. I’d like to think I’d be a walker. For me though, it was normally obvious whenever I was out, which was limited only by the very few times I was allowed to bat at all.