How McCullum’s England became the people’s team
Half-past five on Saturday afternoon (UK time) on the third day of the third test against New Zealand saw, and heard, a small yet unprecedented development in the evolution of England’s cricket.
Normally that time of day on the Saturday of the Headingley test is the cue for spectators on the Western Terrace, or whatever its latest name, to compete for the title of the world’s longest beer-snake. Not on this occasion. Stuart Broad stood at the top of his mark at the Kirkstall Lane end.
No James Anderson, so Broad was England’s attack-leader.
The white bandana gave him the piratical air of one about to lead a boarding party with ball if not cutlass in hand.
Then the spontaneous combustion. Broad, still at the top of his mark, waved his arms to urge the crowd to clap in unison. So did Ben Stokes. Previously England captains, whether Joe Root or Stokes, have by themselves exhorted spectators to cheer the team, as has the theatrical Broad. But now something new occurred.
The other England players joined in, encouraging the capacity crowd to encourage them, which they duly did. Almost to a man, England’s fielders urged the crowd on, and the crowd urged them on, in a moment of connecting that has never quite occurred in English cricket before: the whole team and whole crowd in sync.
Throughout Broad’s over the cheering went on – the next, bowled by the less histrionic or more introverted Matthew Potts, was quieter – and this was not mindless chanting or the alcohol talking. This is now the people’s cricket team,
Headingley proclaimed.
Only in Ashes tests at Edgbaston, and perhaps at the smaller ground of Trent Bridge in 2015 when Broad had his field day of 8-15, had there been similar demonstrations of collective unity; and here was a step above.
England unshackled. England uninhibited. England united, both cricketers and spectators. Perhaps even the sport’s administrators could scarcely forbear to cheer if they were bothered to watch.
It is this chemistry which has undone Australia in the past, in the series of 2005, of 2013 and 2015, and in the Headingley test of 2019; and to have created this atmosphere a year in advance, in a series against
New Zealand, after England’s losing streak, has been a magnificent month’s work.
Broad did not take a wicket before rain halted the day, but he had a straightforward chance dropped by Root at first slip, when Tom Latham had made 72; and Broad had lit the blue touch paper which engulfed three New Zealand batsmen in the hour before the rain; and he had scored a rollicking 42 to give England a lead on first innings, having been 55-6.
Broad turned 36 last week, yet he still has a major role to play in this alchemy which is transforming England’s test team.
❏ Scyld Berry is a cricket writer for the Telegraph