England’s gathering at the Oval seemed a fairly subdued and chaotic way to celebrate one of the great sporting achievements but, silly as it all was, it felt sweet and fitting too
People have all sorts of ideas about the best way to tackle a bad hangover: cold showers, carbohydrates, coffee, perhaps a good cooked breakfast or a turn in the fresh air. One thing no one has ever recommended, though, is the remedy the ECB concocted for their World Cup winning team, which involved a meet-and-greet with hundreds of screaming primary-school children on the outfield at the Oval, a round of press and TV interviews, and then, to cap it all off, a swift hair-of-the-dog with Theresa May at No 10 Downing Street. Watching the players come stumbling downstairs from the dressing room at 11 in the morning, the drinkers among them conspicuous by their sunglasses, it looked less like a party than it did a punishment.
When Sri Lanka won the World Cup in 1996, their captain, Arjuna Ranatunga, lost the cheque he had just been presented with at the victory ceremony because someone pickpocketed it from him during the pitch invasion. This time you wondered, for a minute, whether Eoin Morgan was going to lose the World Cup trophy when he disappeared beneath a wave of overexcited schoolchildren, who started climbing all over him, and each other, to get at it. At one point, one of the bigger kids among them seemed to have actually wrenched the cup away from him, before someone wisely decided that maybe they should hurry the thing back indoors again.
Written by Andy Bull at the Oval
This news first appeared on https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2019/jul/15/england-cricket-world-cup-odd-oval-party under the title “Hangovers, smiles and screaming kids: England’s odd Oval party | Andy Bull”. Bolchha Nepal is not responsible or affiliated towards the opinion expressed in this news article.
