Outside, it is cinereous and damp; February creeps in without an ode to anything, least of all joy. But somewhere, surely, the Cricket World Cup final is being replayed. On Tuesday England men’s cricket team play their first ODI since that magical Sunday last July when the bubbles flowed and the sun cranked up and the burnt-orange bricks of the Lord’s pavilion shouted “England” – though in a carefully non-xenophobic way.
When a tied champagne super over gave England victory by dint of more boundaries, when administrators and broadcasters saw sense by showing the game on terrestrial television and school playgrounds the next day were full of did-you-sees and England became the first country to win the football, cricket and rugby world cups, with a team of superstars with multi-national heritage in baby blue pyjamas.
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