Games Of Our Lives

And while we’re at it, let’s not forget about the supersonic surge in women’s football (the Lionesses won Euro 22) and other once male-dominated team sports such as rugby and cricket. They have firmly taken their place alongside the traditional women’s powerhouse sports such as hockey, tennis, and athletics. What better validation of the fact that we are so much more inclusive and accepting than we were only one generation ago?

But back to our contribution to world sport. Although different algorithms are used, cricket, tennis, golf, and rugby are always in the top ten. (Although I had no idea handball was so massive in Europe!) Badminton, another British invention that has its roots in India, is apparently more popular than tennis, but the development of modern lawn tennis is a feat to which we can lay claim and much of the credit can be laid at the door of a certain Major Walter Wingfield, a beardy Victorian, who from what I can tell was the W G Grace of tennis. He was a Welshman, but we won’t hold that against him

And while we may not rule the rankings of all the Grand Slams (but in fairness, we’re doing much better now than we were 20 years ago thanks to the likes of Andy Murray and Emma Raducanu), Wimbledon is the one they all want to win. Why? I guess grass is arguably the most challenging surface, but there is more to it: tradition, the time of year, the pomp and ceremony. You simply can’t beat it.

But if there is a game that epitomises the British character more than any other, it is surely cricket. Foreigners baffled by even the most basic rules, the jargon and the fact that test matches can last as long as five days, cricket has given us such memorable metaphors for life, laced as they are with pure Britishness. Challenging situations — successes and failures and even battles — can be reduced to cricketing metaphors, the most famous being “It’s just not cricket”, a phrase often invoked when behaviour flies in the face of common decency and accepted practice. A bit preachy? Perhaps. Anachronistic? Maybe. Elitist? Possibly. An undeniably British trait? Definitely. Do I wish they’d be phased out? Of course not! And at the risk of feeding even further into an unfashionable mindset, I want to end with the lines of the second stanza of Rudyard Kipling’s poem ‘If’, which is on the wall of the players’ entrance to the Centre Court at Wimbledon: If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster, and treat those two impostors just the same. They sum up our British sense of fair play and integrity. And while the notion of the amateur sporting gentleman/woman has long disappeared in a world of eye-watering contracts, sponsorships, and endorsements, there is still a part of the Corinthian mindset that values decency and honour and other life lessons. Long may it last.