England on the bounceback

Midway through yesterday afternoon, Kevin Pietersen hopped, skipped and jumped his way down the Trent Bridge wicket in celebration of his twelfth test match hundred. And as he whipped the navy blue helmet from his head and thrust a clenched fist into the air, I began to ponder upon just have evocative the British sporting summer can be.

For a magical three months, nestled between the frantic end of a football season and the expectant beginning of a new one, cricket and tennis rush into the fill the hole in the sporting timetable.
It became a national pastime for more than a decade speculating as to whether ‘this would be Tim Henman’s year at Wimbledon?’ The critics were optimistic, the newspapers wrote of Churchill and the ‘British spirit’ and the population camped out on ‘Henman Hill’ in a state of twittering excitement.

Unfortunately they all transpired to be a little deluded and it never quite happened for Tim. Following his retirement in August of last year, this will be the first Henman-free Wimbledon in quite some time – leaving him happily removed from the glare of the press and free to lament the rainstorm which proved a fatal interruption to his semi final with Goran Ivanišević in 2001.

Happily for all parties with a vested interest, Andy Murray promises to provide the nation with a little more stimulation this June when the tournament starts in just over a fortnight’s time.

Meanwhile, following their wonderful performance three summers’ ago against the Australians, the English cricket team still appear to be wedged in a lugubrious rebuilding period. Andrew Flintoff, who remains arguably England’s best player and tub-thumping all-rounder, has been perennially injured and just like Humpty Dumpty is taking a good deal of being put back together again.

Of the other members of the victorious Ashes team, many of them are performing in fits and starts. Marcus Trescothick has disappeared into the mist completely, the ‘King of Spain’, Ashley Giles retired with a bad hip and Simon Jones the dynamic reverse-swing specialist was last spotted trundling around the outfield of Worcester’s New Road pitch.

Thank the lord then for the presence of Kevin Pietersen, who has not tired of clubbing the opposition bowlers to all points of the outfield. As he rules the back pages of the newspapers today, his face contorted into a Gladiatorial-growl, we can be assured that the British sporting summer of 2008 has begun.

Tags: Sky, Sport //