Well England did it at last, winning the Cricket World Cup for the first time since it was established in 1975; and what a brilliant final and such a close margin of victory. In the end it was sad for either team to lose and I couldn’t help but feel sorry for the New Zealand players who must have felt the gods were just not on their side in the final overs of the game. At the end of the day, the rules are the rules. I was born a Yorkshireman and cricket was in my blood; from playing against the tree at the end of our cul-de-sac (6 and out when it went into Miss Horn’s garden), to going with my father to Bradford Park Avenue where I saw so many of the Yorkshire greats play. It was my first sporting love, although my dreadful hand eye co-ordination meant that I was always a hopeless player.

I love the ritual of cricket as much as the action; that’s why cricket on the radio is such a success. It’s the banter and the conversation surrounding the play as well as the endless stats about previous matches and player’s performances. Did you know that Jason Roy is only the 6th Player to score 10 fifties in the world cup? How fascinating is that? Or not if you don’t get it.  However, I think for us all there is something magical about seeing cricket in action. Especially in our country, on grounds in our picturesque villages and hearing the sound of leather on willow.  It is quintessentially English in the best sort of way. Hardly surprising that Cricket features strongly in the Archers and Midsomer Murders.

The other essential part of cricket is its obsession with fair play.  Here is a sport where you do not cheat and the umpire’s word is final, subject to the Decision Review System which even enhances the feeling of fairness of decision making. I feel that somehow captures the essence of being British. The idea is that we obey the law and treat everyone fairly and with respect whoever they are and wherever they come from. Anything else is just not cricket. Thus cricket for me still has an important part to play in our national psyche and we neglect its values at our peril.

I watched Newsnight on Wednesday night and saw a discussion on the resignation of Sir Kim Darroch which had been announced earlier that day. It has since been made clear that the failure of Boris Johnson to endorse his position in the TV debate the night before had been the final straw. However in this debate, Richard Tice MEP for the Brexit Party went much further than Boris in condemning our Ambassador for undiplomatic language, which he should have known was likely to be leaked, and that he deserved to be relieved of his duties.

I found this one of the most disturbing statements of any allegedly ‘mainstream’ politician I have ever heard in my lifetime. In effect Richard Tice was tearing up our entire constitutional governance system which depends on a professional civil service who serve their political masters without fear or favour. Too many on the right wing have routinely taken to accusing our civil servants of incompetence, or even worse, deliberate their undermining of Brexit because they are all allegedly ‘covert Remainers’. The argument for Brexit was made on the grounds of our national sovereignty, but these tactics reveal that the most extreme wish to undermine our entire constitution. This threatens an age of chaos where the unscrupulous can achieve their own evil ends.

As we celebrate our Cricket Team’s success and congratulate New Zealand on their contribution to such a fine game, can we at the same time remember the values which that sport embodies, which I believe are our national values too. If we who believe in fair play and following the rules of the game do not speak up and oppose, we will find our world has changed to something rather nasty. It certainly won’t be cricket but something much more insidious.