Dan Hodges reports on having been overcome by a feeling of ‘Englishness’ with respect to the destiny of the present Ashes series. This is what Englishness means in Dan’s account of it:
I always thought that to be alive during a period of great English cricketing success would be sublime. But it’s not. It’s a curse.
Yes, I want them to win. But I want them to win in the English way. That means Edgbaston 2005, or Cardiff 2009 (technically a draw, but a win really). And by extension, it also means them losing.
If England win at Lord[‘]s then the series is effectively over. And if they do go on to whitewash Australia then it will mean that the predictions were true: Australia really will have turned out to be rubbish. It will also mean a whitewash in Australia later this year is on the cards. At which point, the Ashes ceases to be a sporting contest. And what does it mean to be an Englishman if you no longer have the Ashes?
Ceases to be a sporting contest because of a period of English dominance? That really seems to be what he believes.
For the Ashes to live, England must lose. By all means, lose in an English way… But lose they must. If they win, then we may well have witnessed our last great Ashes series.
When England emerge on to the hallowed turf at the home of cricket on Thursday, I will be praying for an Australian victory. Every true Englishman must do the same.
I, too, am hoping for Australian victory, or if not that, then that Aus at least put up a creditable fight over the whole series. But this is because I support Australia; I always have in Ashes cricket. However, the idea that the Ashes would be over as a contest if England retain them decisively in the two series this year lacks all historical perspective. Australia were dominant throughout the 1990s and beyond, and look what then happened. Or look at what happened to the long period of West Indian supremacy centred on the 1980s. It turned to ashes, as one might say.
Later I will offer some statistical support for this observation about Anglo-Australian cricket. In the meantime I join Dan in wanting Australia to win, but not in his pessimism about Ashes cricket should they lose.