THE IMMORTALS
Bobby’s boys of 1966. Johnno’s giants in 2003. Now Morgan’s men can join World Cup pantheon and become...
Eoin Morgan’s England have the chance tomorrow to become legends comparable to Bobby Moore’s World Cup winners of 1966 and Martin Johnson’s rugby heroes of 2003.
never will a vibrant and diverse England have a better chance of ending 44 years of hurt while inspiring a potential new generation of cricket fans by beating new Zealand at Lord’s to win the 50-over World Cup for the first time.
and the only Englishman to lift any global cricket trophy — 2010 World Twenty20-winning captain Paul Collingwood — said last night: ‘i’m desperate to see Eoin lift that trophy because what he has done for this team is remarkable and this would be the perfect end to
their journey. These lads have grabbed the imagination of the public and, with the magnitude of a World Cup final being shown on free-to-air television, it’s almost a perfect storm.’ Jonny Bairstow, who tweaked a groin muscle in England’s thumping semi-final victory over Australia on Thursday, was declared fit yesterday to take his place in what looks sure to be an unchanged England side. But there will be no open-top bus parade like the one after the fabled 2005 Ashes success should England win tomorrow, because most of the side will head straight into preparations for the Ashes series that begins on August 1. Tickets for England’s first World Cup final appearance in 27 years disappeared before people’s eyes yesterday as a clutch of India fans reversed decisions to sell back their seats. Tournament organisers were expecting to place just over 200 tickets on their official online resale platform yesterday morning — the number that were initially nominated in the aftermath of India’s semi-final exit on Wednesday. However, that dropped to around 50 in the hours following England’s win over Australia. Fears of empty stands tomorrow were triggered by India supporters snapping up around 12,000 of the 30,000 tickets in the hope of Virat Kohli’s side making the final. The organisers are monitoring secondary ticket websites in a bid to stop individuals seeking to make huge sell-on profits for the match. However, they insisted such activity ‘has not been huge’, with only 150 attempts made ahead of Thursday’s semi-final between England and Australia.