Fun runs

Something wonderful is happening in English cricket. The Ashes are upon us and, at last, the England team seem determined to play the right way. The recent series against New Zealand was a revelation. The Kiwis’ have-a-go approach rubbed off and, for the first time in too long, England played as if cricket was more than a job. It could be fun too. Remember fun?

We have seen it before. In 1981, at Headingley, England were revived by the rustic virtues of what their captain Mike Brearley called ‘blacksmith cricket’. See ball, hit ball. Bowl as fast as you can. Keep it simple. Trust yourself.

For a long time England have approached cricket as though it was not a game but a military campaign. They talked of bowling ‘dry’ in ‘the right areas’, of applying ‘scoreboard pressure’. When the management praised the ‘brand of cricket’ the team played, you felt this was yet more evidence of a sport, and a hierarchy, that recognised the price of everything and the value of precious little.