Is it too much to suggest that success for a team featuring players with roots in England, Pakistan, South Africa, Zimbabwe, New Zealand, the West Indies, and coached by a bunch of Aussies, is a victory for cricket as a whole? Yes, of course, that would be complete hogwash. But if it hasn’t added to the gaiety of nations, then at least benighted little Blighty feels a little less miserable.
The UK is, of course, on its third prime minister of the year (thanks, India, for the latest one) and has been running its economy “like an emerging market”, so it should be abundantly clear that we’ve given up trying to tell the rest of the world how to do things. Or, perhaps more accurately, the rest of the world has given up listening. But buying into the view, long accepted by most established cricket countries, that playing in pyjamas was actually a serious business continues to pay out for England.
The Light Roller has mentioned before how disconcerting it is for anyone who was exposed to even a few minutes of the 1999 World Cup that England have not only won two men’s white-ball titles in the last three years, but now seem to be setting the standard for everyone else. It’s about as plausible as Krusty the Clown opening an architectural practice, or Donald Trump being elected president.
But it turns out by listening to others, and/or poaching their players/coaches, you can achieve a cockles-warming tale of growth. It could only have been bettered had Jos Buttler’s team demonstrated the full extent of their conversion from preachy establishment buffoons to cutting-edge white-ball assassins by finishing off Pakistan in the final with a run-out of the non-striker while backing up.
Come on, Jos. You can do it. Mankad your way into our hearts forever.