The late and lauded commentator Bill McLaren is the ghost of Calcutta Cups past and future according to Frank Keating in The Guardian.
"The friendly ghost so fondly whisping around the rafters of every stadium through all the Six Nations matches so far has been, of course, that of Bill McLaren, the BBC's late and lauded rugby commentator who died at 86 just weeks before the 2010 tournament began. Remembrance of Bill will be particularly potent on Saturday: the Calcutta Cup match between Scotland and England was always the good old boy's beloved annual feast day.
"The McLaren eulogies are launched tomorrow with a tribute evening at Murrayfield itself where a male voice choir and the inevitable pipe-band do the honours alongside such luminaries as Chris Paterson and the British Lions manager Gerald Davies in celebrating the life of the broadcasting legend.
"No man can have witnessed more Calcutta matches, home or away. If truth be told, the worrypot perfectionist in McLaren had him increasingly het-up in the week of any international match. A sure way to calm him was to evoke his recall for distant Calcutta Cup contests. The more faraway in the mists, the warmer the memory for Bill."
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