“The World of Charles and Ray Eames”, the recent exhibition at the Barbican in London, was a case study in the playfulness of work and the seriousness of play. Splints for broken legs, toys for children, chairs for Middle America, projections of the world’s future: the
designers approached every problem with the same, childlike wonder. “Toys are not really as innocent as they look,” as Charles Eames put it. “Toys and games are the preludes to serious ideas.”
After a morning immersed in Eamesworld, with its Californication of everything, I reflected on how gloomy and unplayful professional sport can be. It’s supposed to be a game! Yet at times during my cricket career, it felt as though sport had been turned into Gradgrindian pedagogy. Worse, joylessness led to “Ls” appearing frequently in the results column. If you’re really serious about winning, I eventually realised, you should adopt an equally serious commitment to play.
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