are england's cricketers english or german?

 
In a month of fairly appalling news, the success of the England team has provided some respite. It might not be absurd, either, to be inspired by it when considering the seeming intractability of Britain's social and economic problems. After all, the England team was ranked worst in the world at the end of the last century. That it is now ranked the best is the result not of luck or individual brilliance (though those things played a part) but of intelligent long-term planning by the relevant institution (the England and Wales Cricket Board), combined with a set of players and coaches who put cooperation - the team ethic - above everything else. Perhaps most importantly, everyone involved, from the field to the boardroom, has displayed grit - the steely determination to overcome setbacks and stay the course; England's progress from its 1999 nadir has been bumpy and uneven, but the direction of travel always remained consistent. In a nation that sometimes seems to have lost confidence in its ability to shape events rather than haplessly react to them, this is something to savour and reflect on.

It's inspiring partly because we've forgotten that such qualities are part of our national character. A few people have commented that this team is more like a German team than an English one, in its relentlessness, its work ethic, its commitment to winning at all costs. But perhaps that just goes to show the idea of a 'national character' can limit the potential of a nation as well as provide sustenance to it. At some point, English footballers came to believe in the stereotype of glorious losers who huffed and puffed before being overcome by wilier or better-organised foreigners. England's cricketers have been less willing to concede that the latter are characteristics of nations other than our own.

Then again, we've always been a lot more German than we like to think. 

Comments

[Robbie]

1. See also: rowing.

2. But see also: cycling. The inspiration for GB's current cycling success was the Australian academy system.

3. Which was also the inspiration for the reorganisation of the current England cricket team. The relentlessness and so on were the hallmarks of the teams Border built to lead Australia out of its 1980s cataclysm.

[bert]

Just cos he's called Strauss.
Lay off.