Skipper

I've always thought Michael Portillo a very thoughtful and rigorous political thinker and he may well be. But on cricket he leaves much to be desired. Take his piece yesterday for example. He quotes the Australian cricketer Justin Langer:

"England cricketers are programmed, they will be up when things are going well, but they will taper off very quickly if you wear them down...as soon as it gets a bit hard you just have to watch their body language and see how fat and lazy they get”.

Now, speaking as fervent (and often fervently disappointed), fan of our summer game, Langer could be right, though I think, despite no longer being a Test player, he was merely trying to stoke up the mind games in which the Aussies always indulge. But Portillo's subsequent analysis is a bit of a joke. He alleges the post 1945 welfare state have made us 'soft and selfish'; 'the welfare state does not produce dogged fighters on the sports field.' He goes on to ask:

Are Australians perhaps kept tougher by their fearful climate, forest fires, crocodiles and poisonous spiders?

Well, this might be the case, though I doubt it. I've no idea why the Aussies are on balance better than we are at sport but I suspect their 'fearful climate' has something to do with it though for the reverse reason. The sun shines so often there that children are constantly outdoors: swimming, running, playing cricket, rugby Australian Rules Football or whatever. It must help a great deal. It might also be said that 'Team GB', as we absurdly called ourselves in Beijing, out medalled the Australians clearly, so his case is a bit shakey before we even look any further into it

But to blame the welfare state is silly and absurd. If Michael had ever looked around when he has visited the country he might have noticed schools, hospitals and publicly funded old folks homes. He might even have seen their equivalent Labour's welfare showpiece, Sure Start. Australians are brought up in a welfare state very much like our own for goodness sake. According to Portillo then, they should also be 'fat and lazy' with no 'dogged' traits on the sports field. But they are not. The reasons why they beat us at cricket so regularly lie in a baffling mix of cultural reasons. And I would suggest the view,frequently voiced in pubs and at cricket grounds that the reason is simply because they are 'bastards'(effing or otherwise), be abandoned also: it has about as much logical substance as Porillo's article.