There is something about politics that lends itself to cricketing metaphors. Perhaps it is because the sport – and we're really talking about test cricket here – is so often bursting with narrative. A game played over five days allows time for story lines, both the heroic and mundane, to gently build. Sometimes erupting into euphoria, other times sliding into bathos.
Changing climactic conditions mean that forward planning can only take you so far. The best captains improvise, acting on intuition as well as relying on reams of data. And so we grow inured to ministers on the media round being described as 'on the back foot' or having been 'hit for six'. When one retires (or is sacked) after a run in the cabinet, it may be said that they 'had a good innings'.
