Forty years on I’m reading again the historian H.H. Scullard’s account of how pre-Imperial ancient Rome drifted by degrees into tyranny. In the background today’s radio and TV pundits are salivating over the current misfortunes of Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s beleaguered administration. Will he last beyond the weekend? Twelve hours ago they thought he wouldn’t. Now they think he may. Tomorrow…?
The ‘plots’ of both political stories are exciting, but complex and opaque. Goodness knows what’s really going on at Number Ten. Or what the true motivations of Sulla & Co. were in Rome BC 80 (Isn’t there someone out there who’ll update Scullard’s turgid prose?) At least it’s unlikely Brown will actually murder his opponents. Murdering colleagues might be a different matter.
Sport offers a relief from all that. The narrative’s so linear, so apparently straightforward. And perhaps more often than in other areas of life, perhaps more often than you’d think it should on sheer statistics, the logic funnels in towards a single kick, a single point, a visible, defined, public moment. A single throw even...
The Twenty-Twenty Cricket World Cup began predictably with a damp squib of an opening ceremony on a cold, wet night at Lords. The cricket authorities don’t seem to do this kind of thing very well over here. There was wonderment that the ICC should have decided to begin the tournament with a match between England and The Netherlands. England? Well, yes we’re the hosts, so fair do’s. But Holland? The Netherlands aren’t even a Test Match playing country. They’re just a bunch of ambitious amateurs. Aren’t they? I bet you know where this story is going…
The Netherlands won the toss, and invited England to bat – always a good move in 20/20, particularly at the outset of a tournament. The batting side has to guess what might be a good score…150? 180? 200? At first all went swimmingly for an England side lacking the raw power and personality of a Pietersen or a Flintoff (Pietersen cried off with an Achilles problem overnight, Flintoff still thinks he’ll be ‘ready for The Ashes’ Ha!). However, England still seemed to be on their way towards the 200 mark, until suddenly things stalled. Young Luke Wright biffed his uncomplicated way to 71. He’s learning how to build an innings in this form of the game and he has a good eye. We’ll see if he can adapt to longer types of cricket in the next year or so, but for now in this context, he’ll do just fine. However the England middle order couldn’t find the boundary, and their return over the last nine overs wasn’t much above a run a ball. The final England total was 162 for the loss of five wickets. Good, but not good enough. Not against this bowling. Even so, surely our experience and skill would see off the Dutch?
Not so. The rain began to fall harder, and the English bowlers and fielders found the ball difficult to grip. Paul Collingwood, the England 20/20 captain, later refused to allow this as an excuse, but it was a factor. The Dutch kept their heads and managed to hit three sixes where England had failed to score a single one. There were quite a few run-out chances, but the English throwing at the stumps was often wide of the mark. In the end their lack of accuracy proved to be the margin between the two sides. From six overs out, it always looked as if it would come down to the last ball bowled. Some of Collingwood’s tactics seemed questionable. The English bowlers didn’t attack the stumps, and the field placings didn’t apply pressure. With the last ball of the match, due to be bowled by Stuart Broad who earlier in the over had dropped a relatively easy return catch, The Netherlands required two runs to win. It was hit in the direction of mid-on by Schiferli the Dutch batsman. Broad sprawled to field from his own bowling and prone, threw at the bowler’s stumps. He missed by a distance, no one was by the stumps to collect the ball, and the batsmen ran two when clear thinking should have ensured it was never a possibility. The Dutch players and supporters duly went bonkers. And so they should. It wasn’t a fluke, it wasn’t a thrown match, it was a clear unambiguous well-deserved victory, and now England will struggle to stay in the tournament. We’ll know on Sunday. But we may not know about Gordon Brown’s short and medium-term political future for a while after that!
The ‘plots’ of both political stories are exciting, but complex and opaque. Goodness knows what’s really going on at Number Ten. Or what the true motivations of Sulla & Co. were in Rome BC 80 (Isn’t there someone out there who’ll update Scullard’s turgid prose?) At least it’s unlikely Brown will actually murder his opponents. Murdering colleagues might be a different matter.
Sport offers a relief from all that. The narrative’s so linear, so apparently straightforward. And perhaps more often than in other areas of life, perhaps more often than you’d think it should on sheer statistics, the logic funnels in towards a single kick, a single point, a visible, defined, public moment. A single throw even...
The Twenty-Twenty Cricket World Cup began predictably with a damp squib of an opening ceremony on a cold, wet night at Lords. The cricket authorities don’t seem to do this kind of thing very well over here. There was wonderment that the ICC should have decided to begin the tournament with a match between England and The Netherlands. England? Well, yes we’re the hosts, so fair do’s. But Holland? The Netherlands aren’t even a Test Match playing country. They’re just a bunch of ambitious amateurs. Aren’t they? I bet you know where this story is going…
The Netherlands won the toss, and invited England to bat – always a good move in 20/20, particularly at the outset of a tournament. The batting side has to guess what might be a good score…150? 180? 200? At first all went swimmingly for an England side lacking the raw power and personality of a Pietersen or a Flintoff (Pietersen cried off with an Achilles problem overnight, Flintoff still thinks he’ll be ‘ready for The Ashes’ Ha!). However, England still seemed to be on their way towards the 200 mark, until suddenly things stalled. Young Luke Wright biffed his uncomplicated way to 71. He’s learning how to build an innings in this form of the game and he has a good eye. We’ll see if he can adapt to longer types of cricket in the next year or so, but for now in this context, he’ll do just fine. However the England middle order couldn’t find the boundary, and their return over the last nine overs wasn’t much above a run a ball. The final England total was 162 for the loss of five wickets. Good, but not good enough. Not against this bowling. Even so, surely our experience and skill would see off the Dutch?
Not so. The rain began to fall harder, and the English bowlers and fielders found the ball difficult to grip. Paul Collingwood, the England 20/20 captain, later refused to allow this as an excuse, but it was a factor. The Dutch kept their heads and managed to hit three sixes where England had failed to score a single one. There were quite a few run-out chances, but the English throwing at the stumps was often wide of the mark. In the end their lack of accuracy proved to be the margin between the two sides. From six overs out, it always looked as if it would come down to the last ball bowled. Some of Collingwood’s tactics seemed questionable. The English bowlers didn’t attack the stumps, and the field placings didn’t apply pressure. With the last ball of the match, due to be bowled by Stuart Broad who earlier in the over had dropped a relatively easy return catch, The Netherlands required two runs to win. It was hit in the direction of mid-on by Schiferli the Dutch batsman. Broad sprawled to field from his own bowling and prone, threw at the bowler’s stumps. He missed by a distance, no one was by the stumps to collect the ball, and the batsmen ran two when clear thinking should have ensured it was never a possibility. The Dutch players and supporters duly went bonkers. And so they should. It wasn’t a fluke, it wasn’t a thrown match, it was a clear unambiguous well-deserved victory, and now England will struggle to stay in the tournament. We’ll know on Sunday. But we may not know about Gordon Brown’s short and medium-term political future for a while after that!
