MARTIN JOHNSON

Last Thursday morning, the Today programme’s early morning sports bulletin came live from Edgbaston, and, in what may well qualify as the cricketing scoop of the year, spellbound listeners were informed that Joe Root’s dad still gives him advice, and that, wait for it, his grandfather would be coming to the cricket.
With the clock still to tick round to 7.30, there were many who must have dropped the toothbrush upon receipt of the jaw-dropping information that the “mower man was out there doing his work,” and when the programme reluctantly dragge...