No end in sight for English team sports’ world-class stinkers | Scott Murray

Below-par cricket World Cup displays are latest in a long line of underachievement – by the men, at least

Folk in Scotland, West Indies and several principalities along the Gulf are hereby permitted to band together, whip out tiny fiddles and strike up the world’s most sardonic lament. But the point still stands: it’s hard work supporting England at World Cups.

England are (apologies to New Zealand) the only one of cricket’s big old beasts never to have won the ICC’s most prestigious prize – hark, that lament’s just segued into a furious ceilidh – and that’s not likely to change any time soon. Within 24 hours of this paper hitting the newsstands, England will either be contemplating going home, having suffered their latest ignominious defeat to Bangladesh, or pondering what the world champions, India, are going to do with them at the SCG in the quarters. Which is worse?

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