And so ends as battering and bruising a two months as any that English cricket has experienced. Many similarly scarring winters of discontent have come before but since the start of 2025, the senior men’s and women’s sides have played 18 times and won just once. Credit, therefore, must go to Abi Norgrove’s U19s restoring a semblance of respectability with a semi-final finish at the World Cup in Malaysia.
Tournaments of torment are far from new but there was a singular sadness to the final outing of Jos Buttler’s tenure as white-ball captain on Saturday. The damage already done, both on the day and beforehand, the captain poked and prodded at the debris of his sinking ship on his way to a boundary-less 21, part of a final English omnishambles to conclude their Champions Trophy.
