The cartoon in a UK newspaper said it all with the imagery of a Wimbledon spectator seeking a refund because he was accustomed to strawberries, champagne and British disappointment.
Andy Murray changed the regular British sporting narrative in the space of a few hours last Sunday and the nations that make up the United Kingdom celebrated as never before after the Scot throttled the world number 1 Novak Djokovic, drowning the Serbian’s fighting spirit and his regular good humour.
Wimbledon is as English as Lord’s, the Henley boat race and a myriad other events around which sporting lore has been built with idolatry and loving care over the decades, even centuries. It’s hard to ignore the national sentiment as sporting tradition takes over the newspapers in word and spirit as it were. The other great tradition that goes back to the 19th century — The Ashes — has begun, that too just a few days after the grass was scorched by Andy’s strokes.
In a long period of Australian domination, the English used to hanker after the ancient urn with the same jingoism with which they used to back the likes of Tim Henman as if just being English would give him the Wimbledon title. Today, England is the holder of the Ashes, having, in a significant, history-changing performance, retained it Down Under after having snatched it from the pliant fingers of that failing captain, Ricky Ponting.
The Ashes are a different world — a pitter-patter of polite applause acknowledging every good cricketing mini-event regardless of which player it came from. The series is almost enough to keep the Anglo-Australian cricket economy going without having to lean on Indian or BCCI money. As cricket’s oldest rivalry it has a niche that is unchallenged. Now that it may serve as a platform for the display of more English superiority, the series may be even more of a sell-out.
The quality of the rival pace attacks is far more likely to define the course of the series. However frail the Australian batting seemed in India in the course of a 4-0 whitewash, they are not to be written off. A closely fought see-sawing series might suit the marketing men in suits more. And world cricket needs an awful lot of quality in the bowling to raise its levels of exchange that have been batsmen-oriented for a long time in the most modern era, except of course when the glamorous boys of the game come across pitches with a bit of zing to them.
The Ashes are not about the top Test ranking now. That lies between South Africa and India later in the year. While South Africa seem happily placed at the top and likely to be there even in the unlikely event of their suffering a washout at the hands of Dhoni’s men, Team India are the top cats of the ODI alley. They are poised to take another title on Thursday when the great Asian rivalry resumes in the final of the tri-series in the Caribbean.
It was important that India bounce back to make it to the title round as otherwise the acting captain Virat Kohli would have taken a lot of flak in unfair comparisons to Dhoni. It takes time for anyone to settle into a job, even Kohli with all his keenness to do well as skipper of a team with mighty expectations to fulfil. If he is able to bring home the trophy from the Queen’s Park Oval, he would be burying the dark memories of Rahul Dravid and the seniors who were on the disastrous 2007 World Cup trip to the island. If that was a disunited Indian team, the current one is a happier outfit even if an odd incident like the Suresh Raina-Ravindra Jadeja spat did spring up.