Sir John Major playing with his muse at the Oval. Photograph: Frank Baron
It is almost a cliche to say that while sport is the subject of many great works of non-fiction, it has underperformed compared to other areas of human endeavour, for instance love and war, when it comes to the literary word.
Then up pops Sir John Major and his poem A Cricket Prayer ("Oh, Lord, if I must die today / Please make it after the close of play") and you realise that sometimes a cliche can be true.
Yes, it is easy to mock. So easy. At least Sir John's verse, which is not without some charm, exceeds poet laureate Andrew Motion's laboured take on the England rugby team's World Cup win. "O Jonny the power of your boot / And the accurate heart-stopping route / Of your goal …" that poem began.
Recovering from the surprise that Sir John was both having an affair with Edwina Currie and writing poetry in his pre-ministerial days (he tells the Times his oeuvre was "poetic sketches of the parliamentary characters of the day") his Cricket Prayer sent us in search of other writings on cricket.
The CricInfo site turned up a piece on the game in 18th century literature. What it considers to be the first proper cricket poem was 95 lines in Latin on a rural match, written by a William Goldwin in 1705. From there it was straight to Carr's Dictionary of Extraordinary English Cricketers - a celebration of flamboyant characters from the 1700s onwards – and the pleasing discovery that Haverford College in suburban Philadelphia is home to a large cricket library and museum. In the US of all places.
So you have history, literature and, if the last three Tests are anything to go by, a strong chance of drama when Australia and England meet tomorrow for the decider in this Ashes series. What we would like you to do is take this in and have a go at writing a few lines of verse in the comment section below. "In comes Warne / He's bowling to Vaughan" would be a start. But you can probably do better.
