Sitting with a team of winning personalities

On Sunday evening after arriving in Johannesburg, the UK media were invited to watch the BBC’s Sports Personality of the Year show at the team hotel as England were recognised for their Ashes victory with the Team of the Year gong.

It was a slightly surreal experience watching the programme through an unbroken feed pumped into a large conference suite. Usually I have watched SPOTY on my sofa at home. This time we got to see the pre-show warm-up and heard the instructions to the audience not to trip over the camera tracks.

The whole squad turned out in their finest Hugo Boss attire while representatives from the British High Commission added their support. The last time the cricket team were such a central part of the awards evening was in 2005 and the time difference wasn’t quite so friendly.

Andrew Flintoff had to get up at 4am in Lahore to receive his Sports Personality of the Year award live on air and the other Ashes winners also made an appearance to collect Team of the Year. There were some bleary-eyed players the next day and suffice to say they lost their ODI against Pakistan.

This time there were no such dramas with a training session scheduled for the morning after, but there was still a fair amount of sitting around for the players as they waited for the show to come live to them in Johannesburg. Andrew Strauss, who was nominated for the top award but couldn’t break into the top three, spoke on behalf of the team but England’s trophy was collected by Flintoff back at the show in Sheffield. When asked what Strauss was like as a captain he said: “He’s alright, isn’t he.” When the show came live into the hotel you could often hear the director’s talk-back – where he speaks to the presenters through earpieces – and it was eye-opening to hear how quickly they have to work. Then there was the sight of the England players applauding in front of a big screen so that the show could cut back to them for a quick shot.

During one of periods when they weren't needed some players headed off for dinner but a few – including Alastair Cook and James Anderson – stayed around and spent time admiring a replica of the trophy. It is full of great names, but only four cricketers – Jim Laker, David Steele, Ian Botham and Andrew Flintoff. Who will be the next?