Shouting from the Hop

It seems that the whole country is celebrating England's Ashes victory! The Queen sent a message of congratulations to the team; A triumphant victory parade is to take place at lunchtime today in Trafalgar Square; the whole squad have been invited to Downing Street to meet the Prime Minister later this afternoon. Hundreds of column inches have been written, hundreds of minutes spent on the radio and TV talking about the great series win.

Every English (and/or British) person seems to know (and have an opinion) about the heroes who have brought the little Urn back to our shores (or at least made sure that it didn't have to go back down under with the Aussies this time...).

Am I jealous that everyone seems to have jumped on the cricket bandwagon? No, not really. I've been a cricket fan all my life. I would like to think that I know more about cricket than the vast majority of the population of this country. I played the game, albeit at a modest, club, level for many, many years. I have played the game in several countries (Australia, Sri Lanka, Barbados, Antigua, Grenada). I have umpired matches in South Africa (where I famously gave ex-England football manager Graham Taylor out! Did he not like that...!) and Australia. I have been on tour with England nine times - to Australia, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, South Africa and the West Indies - and watched them play test cricket at 18 different stadia. I have seen England play in a World Cup final (and they should have won...). I have spent time in the bar and gym with England cricketers, chewing the fat, celebrating famous wins, hoping for better times, consoling the injured or dejected. I am on first name terms with an ex-England captain and with one of Englands greatest ever spinners. I got drunk with Sir Garfield Sobers in his room the night that Brian Lara took away his World record test runs score. I've bought Greg Chappell a drink, and had him buy me one in return. I've chatted to a less than sober Mark Waugh about his thoughts on Devon Malcolm the night before a test match. I've helped both Nassar Hussein's wife and Adam Gilchrist's wife with their children prams when they needed it. I've stood in lifts, and hotel lobbies, and had breakfast with more famous cricketers than I can remember. I've had a lovely life talking about, playing and watching cricket.

And now everyone is doing it!

I think it's funny that some people think we won the game at The Oval yesterday. I think it good that more people on the streets of London will recognise the faces of the England players this week than they could last week (a survey conducted showed that less than ten percent recognised any of the players and only one percent recognised more than four!).

I think it wonderful that so many "celebrities" were present at the Oval for this test match, especially as at least one of them hadn't been seen at a test match before - stand up Kelly Holmes, Hugh Grant, Stephen Fry, John Major, Jeffrey Archer, and Trevor MacDonald. Oh and Hi to friends Chris and Carol, and Glenys who I saw on TV in the crowd on Saturday! Oh, and "yaboo sucks" to Simon Chapman, an Aussie ex-colleague who thought the Ashes were coming back to Australia right up till Monday morning.

The Barmy Army - Atherton's Barmy Army as they were when fans first took up the chant and logo in 1994/5 - are now revered as a crucial element of the make up of an English test match crowd, at home (except at Lords) and abroad. The original joke being that you had to be barmy to follow England overseas way back in the early nineties!

I think it's great that the England cricket team will have a parade in Trafalgar Square today in honour of their achievements, as the England rugby team did when the won the World Cup a couple of years ago, and as the Olympic champions did on their return from Athens last year.

This has been a great victory, suitably recognised. I don't care who jumps on the cricket bandwagon today, this week, next month, during the Winter tours to Pakistan and India, or anytime.

But just give a thought to people like me and some of my friends - Alan Bain, Karen Jones, Mike and Carol Jones, Geoff Redding, Laura Shaw, Richard and Yvonne Shaw, Tia Watt-Roy, Paul Burchett, Jeff Lewis and lots more - who have been following England to test and one-day matches around the world for most of the last fifteen years or so, through some good times, but mostly bad, and then cheer, because that's what we've all been doing these last few weeks!