Well Done England!

After last Sunday's events at the Oval, what can I do but congratulate the English cricket team once again? It was a splendid match, and our bowlers rose magnificently to the occasion. It has been an exciting series and it is wonderful that the Ashes are home again. I can see a time in the future when it might seem strange to our descendants that people were enthralled by a game that lasted five days and sometimes never reached a conclusion, but it seems to me that test cricket is the essence of sport: subtle, complex, skilful, strategic, demanding, compelling. All the more pity that not everyone can watch it on television. Would the £18 million that the BBC is paying Jonathan Ross not be better spent on bringing our national game to the screens of everyone in England?