Is it just me or do you have a warm and tingly feeling? England v Australia, mortal enemies battling it out for the ultimate urn in Test cricket, and yet a sense of fair play has descended upon Edgbaston.
Justice, humanity and chivalry are in the air: things that many of us feared had departed cricket, what with the sledging, baiting and all-round nastiness that so often disfigure the global game.
Andrew Strauss did not have to allow the Aussies to replace their stricken wicketkeeper when he injured himself during the warm-up. Australia had already announced their line-up, signed on the dotted line and made the whole thing public. It was irrevocable, on a point of law.
Straussy could have said: “Sorry, mate, would love to help and all that, but rules is rules.” But he didn’t. He thought about it for a couple of minutes, discussed it with the team manager, waved his moral compass about and decided that he couldn’t, in all conscience, force Australia to play without a specialist keeper.
He took a moral view. Not a win-at-all-costs view. Not the kind of view that you might imagine emerging from an England cricket captain — or his counterpart, come to that.
It is sometimes thought that sport is red in tooth and claw, no better than the bear pit, a moral-free vacuum for unconscionable sorts to give each other a really hard time. An arena for cheats and bullies to try to get away with as much as possible while the ref is looking the other way.
And, truth be told, it sometimes seems that way to me, too.
But on occasions it is possible to glimpse something different, something grander: individuals who would rather lose than breach, not just the rules, but the spirit of the game; individuals who never lose sight of the wider dimension. Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Adam Gilchrist: all men who made it to the pinnacle without compromising their values.
These are people who understand that there are things in life, things in sport, that elevate the whole damn thing beyond the merry-go-round of victory and defeat; things that make the thing worth caring about.
Strauss, with his decision, in the midst of the most important series of his career, proved that he understands that too.
* Spoof Strauss v Ponting blog
