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Cricket is a funny game, and you would imagine that it is a rich field for comic writers.
When the Scot Donald Cameron sees the following headlines in newspapers in England, he is almost “numb with the cold of sheer panic.”
England Overwhelmed With Disaster, says one.
Is England Doomed? asks another. A late edition mentions the
Collapse of England.
Cameron soon discovers the truth. This is not about a war or an attack by aliens. It is the “sad story of England’s shame in the second Test match against Australia at Melbourne.”
England, Their England, where this is taken from was published in the 1930s. It feels dated now, but has the best-known report of a cricket match in fiction. Written by A.G. Macdonell, this classic on the quirks and foibles of the English as seen through Scottish eyes, was much anthologised, and even included in some school textbooks. The final catch that tied the match takes four pages to describe, suggesting