During the winter tour to South Africa that, suddenly, seems a lifetime ago, I spent one evening in the cinema watching Sam Mendes’s 1917. As it happened, most of the England team were in there too, something that I knew would amuse the director, who is a cricket fanatic. I’ve known Mendes for some time, so I dropped him a text to tell him. His reply, part of which I hope he won’t mind me using at this juncture, struck at the heart of what makes sport worthwhile and important: “Bizarre though it may seem, I thought of the England team a fair amount while I was making it,” he wrote, “which might account for some of the character names having a familiar ring

Source: The Times March 23, 2020 17:10 UTC