England Resurgent

The football team has suddenly turned invincible, under the managership of Glenn Hoddle. In a few days we have beaten Poland, virtually ensuring qualification for the World Cup finals in France next year. Then for good measure we have beaten France and Italy in a four-nation tournament, with only Brazil (the world champions) now standing in the way of a clean sweep. Meanwhile, the British Lions and the English rugby teams have been scoring assorted successes in South Africa and Argentina respectively.

And now England has beaten Australia with some ease in the first test at Edgbaston, with five more to go and the fearsome Aussies not looking too sure of themselves. On the first morning of the match, colleagues in my office were not so much jumping for joy as scratching their heads incredulously as word spread of the Australians collapse. Theyre 48 for seven, said the man sitting next to me.

 

Neither of us could believe it. I had this nasty feeling that when England batted, there would be an even worse collapse. And there was a bit of a scare as we slipped to 50 for three. But then Graham Thorpe and Nasser Hussain took control, and played commanding innings. Hussains double century was the best England innings for a long time.

The extraordinary success of the first two days of the match even enabled us all to be indulgent about the Australian captain, Mark Taylor, who is by general consent a jolly good bloke. He had not scored a half century since 1995, but nobody had wanted to sack him. Still, he needed to score some runs to keep his place, and he came through with a century. Even the English were happy for him, and various Australian commentators should now be busy eating a lot of their own words. Taylor, however, is such a good bloke that he will not force all those newspaper articles down the writers throats.

English newspapers have been reduced by English success to writing front page articles about the great summer of sport. The Times cricket correspondent says the English set-up, with David Graveney as chairman of selectors and David we murdered em Lloyd as coach, is the best he has known and he has seen quite a few England managements over the years. The problem for the press is what to write next. What do they do if England goes on winning? The English press needs somebody to crucify, and they are very good at it. Since the whole country is in a state of starry-eyed euphoria about Tony Blairs government, there is a distinct absence of candidates for crucifixion. This situation, as economists would say, is not sustainable.

We have got used to analysing endlessly the reasons for failure, and exposing those responsible and then consoling ourselves with plucky victories won against the odds. Perhaps things are changing. I shall enjoy it while I can. Perhaps an Englishman will win Wimbledon and perhaps Hoddles men will win the World cup. I can dream.