Cricket’s World Cup: “paroxysms of delight”
Theresa May is not a politician known for her displays of exuberance. But on one of her last days in office, the PM was so overcome with emotion that she “broke into a jig”, said Martin Farrer in The Guardian. And she wasn’t the only one to be so affected by England’s triumphant performance in Sunday’s cricket World Cup final ( see page 24). The national side’s last-gasp victory over New Zealand sent most of the 30,000 fans packed inside Lord’s into “paroxysms of delight” – scenes that were mirrored across the country as 8.3 million viewers watched on Sky and Channel 4 and “celebrations spilled from homes and pubs and into the streets”. No wonder, said The Daily Telegraph: the match’s nerve-shredding final “Super Over” was one of “the most dramatic finishes ever seen in any sport”. It was a climax that “should gladden the hearts of all who love the game this country gave to the world”.
More than anything, it was a victory for “diversity”, said Robert Hardman in the Daily Mail. England’s team included players born in Ireland (captain Eoin Morgan), New Zealand (Ben Stokes), South Africa (Tom Curran and Jason Roy) and Barbados (Jofra Archer); and while Moeen Ali and Adil Rashid were born in the UK, both their families had migrated from Pakistani-administered Kashmir. Their success defies critics who say the game is dominated by a “gilded elite” or who point to a recent report by the Sutton Trust and the Social Mobility Commission, which found that 43% of England cricketers had attended private schools. Far from being “toff heavy”, this was a team of “extremely talented athletes from modest homes who had excelled long before a few of them were offered varying degrees of help from independent schools”.
But where will England find its stars of the future, asked Michael Henderson in The Daily Telegraph. These days, cricket is hardly played in state schools, while around the country clubs are closing. Despite the interest in Sunday’s victory, the sport has “never been less visible”, and the main reason for its decline is the loss of the sport from free-to-air television. A Labour government removed live coverage of English Test matches some 20 years ago from the list of “crown jewels” – sporting fixtures reserved for terrestrial TV. Sunday’s decision to allow C4 to share the coverage of the final was a “desperate act of charity” on the part of Sky: until then, the tournament could only be seen there. Sure, English cricket needs the revenue. But bathing in Sky’s “soothing financial waters” has come with a cost: an entire generation of young people who know little and care less about the game.