The ECB hierarchy concentrated on winning the
World Cup, and while that mission was accomplished the ruins of England’s Test batting was there for all to see at HeadingleyThere used to be thousands of lamplighters in London; these days there are just five left.
British Gas keeps them on the payroll to work the stretch of
Kensington Palace Gardens where English Heritage refused to install electric street lights. So they just about outnumber the surviving members of another of England’s dead professions, Test batsman, a job whose essential requirements seem almost entirely alien to this generation of players, who have been weaned on white-ball cricket and whose best players have spent the past two years worrying about nothing much other than winning the World Cup.
![England capitulate with a shrug of white-ball induced indifference | Andy Bull](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/d437c5c2b373731a8e4f5bd3c75691312199238c/306_387_4792_2875/master/4792.jpg?width=1200&height=630&quality=85&auto=format&fit=crop&overlay-align=bottom%2Cleft&overlay-width=100p&overlay-base64=L2ltZy9zdGF0aWMvb3ZlcmxheXMvdGctZGVmYXVsdC5wbmc&enable=upscale&s=69f5a622f4972495b0e0769fafe569ed)
Patience and judgment seem to have as much relevance to them as a working knowledge of Betamax does.