This Sunday... stop, take a minute, and appreciate the greatness of this England team

SAM MORSHEAD AT LORD'S: On Sunday, it will be easy to get swept up in the emotion and undulating drama of this great sport. So pause, if you can. Pause, and consider just how lucky we have been to live in this era of English greatness

If you have ever been married, or if you are in the process of planning your wedding, you have probably been bombarded with one piece of advice above all else.

“Take a moment,” friends will say. “Find time for yourself and take note of what is going on. 

“Make sure you remember as much as you can.

“It goes so fast.”

This weekend, England cricket fans would do well to take heed of those words when, for the first time in 27 years, our men’s team takes part in a World Cup final.

Yes, I use ‘our’. Now is no time for stiff-lipped impartiality.

On Sunday, it will be easy to get swept up in the emotion and undulating drama of this great sport. Commentators will ask you to think in phases and question strike rates, to discern between offcutters and knuckleballs, to query the need for third man to be up in the ring.

You’ll be required to digest complicated data and simple graphics, many of you may need to explain the intricacies and nuances of our wonderful sport to those watching for the first time on free-to-air TV.

^{England captain Eoin Morgan}

There is a good chance that, without noticing, you’ll be dragged through the occasion having barely stopped for breath, let alone a moment with your own thoughts.

So pause, if you can. Just for a minute, a handful of seconds if that’s all you have.

Pause, and consider just how lucky we have been to live in this era of English greatness. Or at least great Englishmen.

Because make no mistake, folks, this is a great team; a team of superstars; a team who to a man deserve to be household names, like Pietersen and Flintoff, Botham and Willis, Barrington and May before them.

That they aren’t and may well never be is a discussion for a different day, but there is the very real possibility that this extraordinarily entertaining, supremely talented side could have its final hurrah in St John’s Wood this sunny Sunday.

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After all, from next year 50-over cricket in England and Wales becomes an afterthought, practically a burden on the ECB as they turn their attention to shiny new things, and their noses up at history.

The One-Day Cup becomes “developmental” - management speak for unimportant - and the international focus switches to the World Test Championship and back-to-back T20 World Cups.

After tomorrow, England’s men do not play an ODI for 206 days, and in the next year they are scheduled to take part in a total of six. 

There is every chance captain Eoin Morgan will choose to step aside and into the franchise jetset, and by the time the next 50-over World Cup comes around the average age of the current squad will be 33. 

Of course there will be upstarts looking to follow the example - Sam Hain, Tom Banton, Saqib Mahmood, Zak Crawley, Matt Parkinson and the rest - but international sport gives no guarantees of success, and certainly none of greatness. That has to be earned. This England team is great and they have earned the right to be described in that way.

But it all comes to an end so quickly.

And then all that is left are photographs.

So on Sunday, take a moment where you can, make sure your memories are better than hazy. 

^{England are favourites to win the World Cup}

Stop and watch Jason Roy, actually watch him bat. See how he puffs his chest and advances down the track on opposition quicks, imposing himself without saying a word; the aura of an emperor and physique of a gladiator. 

Commit to memory how entertaining he is in partnership with Jonny Bairstow, appreciate their speed between the wickets and their ruthlessness with anything short, overpitched or wide. Or of a good length. Just about any kind of delivery, really.

Keep a log of Bairstow’s on and cover drives, the thunderous crack of his bat, his lolloping march to the crease, a hunter-gatherer on the trail of runs.

Stop. Really concentrate now. See if you can guess when Joe Root has reached 30. I bet you can’t. He probably already has. Appreciate just how difficult it is to rotate the strike against the world’s best bowlers, that rare ability to find space in a crowd. Try to figure out how he picks off a good-length ball for two with a cut so late the maitre d’ gave away its table.

Take a mental note of Captain Morgan’s twinkletoed hammer-drive, in to out over extra cover, and both his and Ben Stokes’ hard-handed reverse sweeps. Watch them, then attempt to do it yourself, and tell me you don’t end up looking like a frog trying to escape from a frying pan.

Track down your GCSE physics teacher, send him a Jos Buttler YouTube compilation and demand to be bumped up from a C.

Remind yourself that Chris Woakes is just as reliable batting at three as he is fielding in the deep and dominating with the new ball, that Adil Rashid can turn his googly as far as his leg break, that Jofra Archer’s run-up and delivery stride wouldn’t look out of place on the Milan catwalk.

See Roy own backward point like a troll does his bridge, really appreciate the trajectory and aim that Stokes and Bairstow generate from the rope, and the recoil felt by Buttler’s gloves.

Don’t let tomorrow pass - victory or defeat - without having a moment, just you and this team. This intelligent, innovative, inspirational cricket team. 

You won’t know what you’ve had until it’s gone. 

Our coverage of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 is brought to you in association with Cricket 19, the official video game of the Ashes. Order your copy now at Amazon.co.uk