ECB’s Richard Thompson: ‘It’s not quite a Packer moment, but it’s a real risk’

Richard Thompson, the new England and Wales Cricket Board chair: ‘Red-ball cricket is in my DNA.’ Photograph: Tristan Fewings/ECB/Getty Images

Richard Thompson, the new chair of the England and Wales Cricket Board, is hoping to reunite Jos Buttler’s T20 World Cup winners for a celebration back on home soil but in an international calendar backed up like the M5 on a bank holiday weekend, the question of when is not a simple one.

The fleeting afterglow of the triumph in Melbourne 12 days ago summed up the challenge, those players not heading to rejoin the split Pakistan tour left to fulfil (and lose) three ODIs against a smarting Australia side. As occurred after 50-over glory in 2019, there was barely time for England’s bleary-eyed champions to reach for the paracetamol before their next assignment began.