The last time England hosted the Cricket World Cup 20 years ago they suffered the embarrassment of being knocked out before the official tournament song had even been released. Their record has scarcely improved since. Yet when Eoin Morgan’s side open the 2019 tournament against South Africa on Thursday they will be in the unfamiliar role of favourites.
England’s captain also has his eyes on another prize: a once-in-a-generation chance to revive interest in cricket, which has slipped since it went behind Sky’s paywall after England’s Ashes victory in 2005. As Morgan said yesterday: “The World Cup raises the profile of the game and is a platform for every young kid in this country to have a hero or inspiration to pick up a ball or a bat. If we were to go on and win it, I couldn’t imagine what it would do.”
It surely helps that England’s 15-man squad reflects the diversity of the country: Moeen Ali and Adil Rashid are of Pakistani descent, Jofra Archer was born in Barbados to an English father, while Morgan grew up in Dublin. However, with all 48 matches only being shown on Sky, younger converts may be hard to find – especially when Channel 4’s match highlights are being shown around midnight on most days.
That will infuriate fans, and there are other problems, with complaints from those who had not received their tickets. One fan, Michael Bostwick, said he had tried 74 times to call Ticketmaster, while others said they were waiting for tickets for games in the coming days despite initially being told to expect delivery six weeks before their match.
However, the issue was played down by Adrian Wells, the director of marketing and ticketing for the Cricket World Cup, who promised everyone would receive their tickets this week. He denied there would be issues for England’s game against South Africa today, saying only 300 of the 24,500 crowd would have to collect tickets from the box office after they failed to arrive in the post. “We are seeing absolutely peanuts numbers of those sort of people and Ticketmaster tell us it is absolutely normal for some tickets to be lost,” he said. “The wider story is that it is a record-breaking World Cup with ticket sales – we are going to sell 95% of tickets and going to have packed stadiums. It is going to be fantastic.”
If England are to win for the first time in the tournament’s 44-year history, they must finish in the first four of the 10-team round-robin tournament, then win a semi-final and final at Lord’s on 14 July. No one doubts they have the pedigree, having won 15 of their last 16 home one-day internationals, and Morgan insists his side can handle the pressure. “The ‘favourite’ tag is there for a reason,” he said. “Over the last two years, our form at home, in particular, has been outstanding.”
No side has as many have-a-go heroes as England, who last year smashed a record 481-6 off 50 overs against Australia. The biggest star could be Jonny Bairstow, who had to change his bat three times while smashing a century against Pakistan this month. But in Morgan, Jos Buttler, Jason Roy, Joe Root and Ben Stokes, England have matchwinners coming out of their ears.
While the tournament is expected to tilt in favour of batsmen, England also have enough bowling firepower, particularly with Archer and Mark Wood capable of spiteful 90mph deliveries. The greatest threat is likely to come from India, led by arguably the greatest ever one-day batsman, Virat Kohli. Australia, who have Steve Smith and David Warner back after bans for ball-tampering, have also started to look ominous.
However, Morgan thinks his side can be the summer’s feelgood hit, just like the nation’s footballers were in 2018. Recently the cricketers heard the football team’s manager, Gareth Southgate, explain how he had shaken off years of underperformance, and Morgan saw parallels. “It was brilliant,” said Morgan. “Every one of our players enjoyed it and every one of our backroom staff did as well. He talked about his journey with the team, not only in and around the World Cup, but in the buildup, as well, and how they built bigger expectations and came together more as a group.”
It is a blueprint Morgan plans to follow. What price England fans are chanting “cricket’s coming home” by the final on 14 July?
