Nigel Rogoff’s life changed on 13 December 1998 but the way he has triumphed over adversity since is truly inspiringThings hit you in the night like a falling stone – worry, grief, sickness, all seem worse when accompanied by darkness and the stark numbers on a digital clock. The exception to this rule is semi-slumbering while listening to a cricket Test match from the other side of the world, a surprisingly restful activity even if
England are doing one of their periodic explosive‑box experiments. What you pick up during these semiconscious moments stays with you for a long time – all the more so when you’ve had to get out of bed to do a night-time over-by-over shift.
OBO cricket coverage has been a Guardian website institution for most of this century, a natural step up from flicking over to Ceefax, which had its own peculiar magic for cricket fans and whose greatest triumph came just as it was about to be overtaken by the internet, broadcasting breathless slow-moving scorecards as
India beat Australia in the almost-greatest-series of all in 2001.