Top of the world

SO rare is it for this country to be the best in the world at anything these days that the achievement of the England Test team in topping the International Cricket Council world rankings is truly worth celebrating – particularly at a time when the nation desperately needs its mood lifting.

By The Newsroom

Published 16th Aug 2011, 01:00 BST

Considering that, 12 years ago, England were briefly ranked as the worst Test team in the world, this recovery has been long in the making. Yet there is no big secret to the turnaround in fortunes. They are simply a very talented group of players who are inordinately well led by captain Andrew Strauss and coach Andy Flower.

Credit, too, should go to their predecessors as coach and captain, Duncan Fletcher and Yorkshire’s Michael Vaughan. Yet it is under Strauss and Flower that the team has truly excelled by concentrating on the basics of staying fit, fielding well, following simple plans and ensuring that everyone puts the team’s needs ahead of any quest for individual glory.

At a time when over-complication is the order of the day in so many aspects of life, there is a lesson here for us all.

England Yorkshire