Donald Trump is not renowned for his love of cricket, but the great manipulator has always known how to play a crowd and while his pronunciation may not have been faultless with the words he uttered at a welcome rally in the Narendra Modi stadium in Ahmedabad last February he had them in his pocket.
“This is the country,” he boomed to the 100,000-plus there to welcome him to India, “where your people cheer on some of the world’s greatest cricket players, from Soo-chin Tendol-kurr to Virod Koh-leee … the greatest in the world”.
Test cricket needs all the friends it can get, even the 45th pr...