I don't play cricket often and I really look forward to a chance to play. So why did I retire my wicket when batting this week?
I was batting well, was not out, seeing the ball well, lively on my toes.
I did it to let team mates lower down the order have a bat. It was a short game and the overs were ticking past.
Veil of ignorance
The ethics behind the choice are Rawlsian.
Rawls said we should make moral choices as if we didn't know what place in the world we would be born into. We should view it through a veil of ignorance. This alters (mainly political) decisions you make on how things should be run.
So if I might have been born into an ethnic minority then racism is a bad choice. I might have been born poor so free state education would be a good choice. I might have been born with business flair so a state run economy wouldn't appeal. You get the picture.
I might have been born batting at 11 (I usually am to be fair). So getting retiring and giving the latter batsmen a go is a sensible Rawslian choice.
I'm not superman
Usually in sport Nietzsche and Geoffrey Boycott win. The superman would score a century and the team would win. Climb a mountain and plant your country's flag on top. We all benefit from the one whose really good at things and allowed to excel.
This usually works in sport as the competitiveness is what makes it fun. Lose and it's more fun to try and win next time. The batsmen below me actually had a moan and said I should have batted on so we had more chance of winning the game!
Trumpet blowing disclaimer
My bowling and fielding were awful, I went for 18 off one over.
