Tear-jerking tales of sacrifice and glory are the perfect motivation

IF ENGLAND’S cricketers need extra motivation as they seek to become the first team to hold the one-day and T20 World Cups at the same time, they could do worse than watch

The Greatest Game, a superb Sky Sports documentary about their unforgettable win over New Zealand in 2019.

With Mark Wood struggling for fitness, only four players from that impossibly tense day at Lord’s are likely to line up in tomorrow’s T20 showdown with Pakistan: Jos Buttler, Ben Stokes, Adil Rashid and Chris Woakes. But the film — the brainchild of the broadcaster and former Middlesex seamer Simon Hughes, and directed by Ashley Gething — will chime with everyone. It may even move them to tears.

Central to the story are the sacrifices made by the players’ parents and childhood coaches. It’s almost enough to persuade you that all roads really did lead to one afternoon. Jody Morgan standing beside his son, Eoin, near their Dublin home struggles to control his emotions as he reflects on life in a family ‘demented’ by cricket. ‘We’re proud beyond belief,’ he says, as his iceman offspring momentarily thaws. In Barbados, Joelle Waithe, mother of Jofra Archer, admits she was ‘almost in tears’ when Jimmy Neesham lifted her son for six in the Super Over. Soon after, she and Jofra pose joyfully with the trophy.

Jason Roy speaks of being removed from his surfer’s upbringing in Durban because his parents wanted a fresh start in England. Rashid calls his commitment to Islam a ‘turning point in my life’. After that, the cricket ‘took care of itself’. Morgan explains how he drew on the team’s diversity to ease tension as England took the field before the Super Over. When Buttler wondered if he had any spare shamrocks, Morgan turned to Rashid and asked: ‘Allah’s with us, isn’t he?’ The 2022 vintage retains its international flavour. Stokes was born in New Zealand, and Chris Jordan in Barbados, where the Welsh-born Phil Salt was raised. Both Rashid and his great friend Moeen Ali have Pakistani heritage. Sam Curran grew up in Zimbabwe. Morgan’s mantra of ‘courage, unity, respect’ remains pertinent. So do the words of then coach Trevor Bayliss as England celebrated their semi-final win over Australia at Edgbaston. ‘I’ll tell you now why Australians think England don’t win finals,’ he tells a hushed dressing room. ‘You win the semi-final, and you think you’ve won it.’

The film cuts to Stokes: ‘S***, yeah, good point.’ No harm in reminding the players of that before they enter the MCG.