That probably holds true in other spheres too– the minute at which a Test match starts, for instance, supplies a hint to the nature of all sport. Berger goes on to talk about “the incongruity of that minute, compared to the uncounted, unperceived silence which preceded it …”
The silence prior to the Southampton Test might not have actually been uncounted or unperceived, but the incongruity was inevitable. The moment prior to the very first ball is bowled in a Test match is one of cricket’s sacred minutes, full of possibilities and hope; the crowd holds its cumulative breath as it prepares for the unexpected, for that single delivery, which, in hindsight carries with it the potential of all that follows.
