Kicking a dog when he’s down

It seems a fashionable moment in time to be having a crack at England. Sir Viv Richards has proclaimed the criteria for “greatness” (and to be fair, he’s one of only a handful of people that can get away with doing so) and has found England wanting.

John Stern has calculated that on current form England are probably the fourth ranked team in the world and despite England’s second placing in the ICC Test Championship table, he’s probably right. There is a lag in the table that masks England's undeniable slippage.

By their own performance measurements too, England are way down in the belly of the doldrums. Immediately following the Ashes victory, the England camp announced that their goal was to beat every team in the world over the following 2 years. England’s record since they announced this goal; played 5, lost 3, drawn 2. Injury woes aside, it makes unattractive reading for an England fan.

As fans though, do we really (come on now, really) care. We’re midway between two Ashes campaigns and whatever England do or don’t do against Sri Lanka, Pakistan and in the ICC Champions Trophy, I sense that all will be forgiven if the little urn is retained in Australia. And isn’t that still the Holy Grail? Yeah, of course it is.