It’s hard not to feel the true weight of football in England at the moment, and it’s measured in tons. L’affair de Stokes has receded to background murmur. The women’s World Cup final at Lord’s was – let’s be real here – a damp squib in part because of the scheduling. Even the debut of a 15 year old wonder-kid followed by a billion back home became nothing more than a throwaway down-pager for the sports sections.
At Wimbledon, the organisers were leaning heavily on old-stagers Djokovic and Williams for a tiny bit of cut-through. All else disappeared from view last Sunday night/Monday morning with the match at the Azteca. Given the inequalities, there’s an odd similarity, almost a singularity, between the men that embody either side of the divide, Harry Kane and Joe Root.
Football’s Unprecedented Grip on the Nation
The match at the Azteca saw the pubs stay open and the schools stay closed. England, oh boy, did they do the business. With a kick-off delayed until 2am, more than nine million watched the match live on BBC, while the next day saw 48 million requests for highlights on the iPlayer.
When someone as eminent as friend of this Substack Jonathan Wilson calls the game one ‘that will be discussed as long as football exists,’ then one is scrabbling around for a vaguely comparable moment in English cricket: 2005 maybe, or the final of 2019?
This, let’s not forget, was not even a quarter final; that comes on Saturday. This fixture takes place just a few hours of drinking time beforehand for the England-India men’s T20. The thought of the England football team contesting a World Cup final and even winning it, well… what would that involve?
A national holiday, a countrywide open top bus tour, a rise in the birth rates, a feel-good windfall for the economy? Andy Burnham getting the three lions tattooed above his heart on a Kik livestream? Thomas Tuchel accepting accelerated British citizenship from Prince William? A vast unfolding of the law of unintended consequences will quickly take place should the impossible dream become real at last.
English Cricket’s Governing Body Under Scrutiny
This football World Cup has the effect of compounding the errors in English cricket’s governorship, specifically the calendar and the mess over the men’s Test team. The Hundred begins two days after the World Cup final, and concludes as England try to cram in a Test series with Pakistan and some white ball cricket against Sri Lanka.
The women’s inaugural Test at Lord’s starts on Friday, just in time for the England v Norway build-up. At this point, the ECB’s prime marketing focus might be to see how many England footballers it can get on camera at a Hundred game. However, the Premier League kicks off on August 21, which is day three of the First Test against Pakistan, so there’s that, too.
Joe Root: England’s Highest Run-Getter
Joe Root is England’s highest run-getter, a status that mirrors Harry Kane as England’s greatest goal-scorer. Both come from ordinary backgrounds, both are husbands and dads with impeccable reputations built on their innate and obvious decency.
An Invisible Summer for Cricket?
The football World Cup has the effect of compounding the errors in English cricket’s governorship, specifically the calendar and the mess over the men’s Test team. This raises the question: can the sport afford an invisible summer beset by bad news and weird vibes?