Photo: Kenny Joseph

There are three kinds of crosses in our lives. One kind is the result of our lifestyle.

If we eat too much, drink too much (Flintoff-like), smoke too much, we can expect a bouncer later in life to knock us down.

Then there is the cross that comes to us because we are in the wrong place at the wrong time.

The pole crashes on us as we are innocently waiting for transport, and we are carted to the boundary for treatment. Bad things do happen to good people.

Finally there is the cross that we choose in order to give life to others.

We spend years researching a cure for malaria, volunteering to work in Sudan, joining forces on environmental issues and getting beaten in the process.

All the teams in the World Cup expended time and energy to reach the high levels of play but some (not West Indies, God forbid) will have to cope with failure when that comes!!

The cross in the picture is suffused with light, symbolising for me the victory over the forces of darkness and death. Mary who in the picture has her back to the cross as if to shield her Son from it, in her life knew how to bat the bouncers of life.

We can duck, we can run, but the cross is inevitable. We can let it knock us out or we can raise our bat to the crowd in victory.