Have you heard about Schrödinger’s six? When a cricket ball has spawned off the edge of the bat and flown all of 35 metres, is that really a six at all? How about when it comes in a hulking yet virtually empty 50,000-seater stadium in Canada, the ball smashed into the empty stands and kerplunking down the vast swathes of unpopulated seats to be retrieved by a clinically unbothered fielder?
You might have seen some of the footage from Canada’s “Super60” T10 tournament in Vancouver this week, particularly a delivery from the Mississauga Masters’ Ali Khan that soared over the Toronto Sixers batter Kieron Pollard’s head and away over the lilliputian straight boundaries of Vancouver’s BC Place. For once this was unquestionably not a six but a five, a wide plus four: a six can only be struck off the bat. But the pertinent question was, what even is any of this?
