In with the Ashes crowd

I've been lucky to spend several days this summer at test cricket grounds, watching TV coverage of same or even surreptitiously following the ball-by-ball updates on my computer.

Whatever your interest in the sport itself (and mine is sadly a life-long obsession), this Ashes summer has demonstrated again quite how well sports like cricket - however anachronistic - serve our social needs.

From the relentless chanting that fires and bonds the raggedy Barmy Army (so annoying to some ears, particularly those in blazers) to the revels of the 10,000s of fans who gathered in Regents Park yesterday afternoon to watch the climax of the series, cricket has provided an excuse of lots of people to gather together, only some of whom are actually that keen on the game.

At a much more functional level, it gives us something to talk to each other about - something safe and uncontroversial (unless it's the conversation I had with my local Turkish newsagent - I'm sure both of us came away with that odd feeling you get trying to explain the game to non-believers).

And it's also given loads of geeky types the chance to make their own content to share and spread around the internet - stuff like this rather weird Edwardian roll-call or this hand-held clip from inside the crowd just before the end.

While it's true that my childhood winter nights were warmed by the exotic locations of the test matches I listened to on my precious transistor (under the bedcovers, of course), it's quite clear to me that it'd be a much less interesting game to watch if it weren't for the other folk watching it with you. While it is the game that's the thing, it's also just as much the crowd that counts.

Just ask Freddie and the lads.

Mark Earls is the author of HERD. You can follow him on Twitter here, and access his blog here.