These are curious times for international cricket. A generation of record-breaking, game-changing greats is gradually taking its leave of the sport, leaving in its wake a potential superstar drought that could threaten the very existence of multimillion-pound television deals.

Most of those considered and ranked among the world’s best cricketers are into their fourth decade. According to the LG ICC rankings, of the world’s top 15 Test batsmen, only Kevin Pietersen is under 29. On the same day ten years ago, only Steve Waugh of the top eight batsmen was over 29. Eight of the present top ten bowlers are in their thirties. In September 1997, seven of the top ten were under 30. And of the top ten ranked batsmen and bowlers in one-day international cricket, only Lasith Malinga, the Sri Lanka pace bowler, is under 25.

Admittedly, cricket rankings, like insurance quotes, should not be relied on as scientific fact, but with Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath and Brian Lara retired and several on the final leg of their journey to cricketing Valhalla, there are vacancies for new heroes to emerge from the formless morass of the international game.

In yesterday’s 633-run one-day festival of cricket at the Brit Oval, several potential applicants for these vacancies were on display. Luke Wright became the latest in the third millennium’s increasingly long parade of successful England debutants. Back before years began with 2, the prospect of storming your first England match must have seemed as likely as having a second volume of poetry published in Stalinist Russia. How times have changed for the better. In both cases.

Wright, 22, negotiated seven scoreless balls before scything a back-cut for four, depositing a slog-sweep for six and progressing to a rapid fifty with confidence and muscular authority. A dashing half-century may not instantly qualify a man for Potential Superstar status, but we live in the Age of Hype, so let us conclude that his performance – at a time when England were struggling – installs him as the new Flintoff, Botham and Jessop combined. Albeit that he did not have the chance to bowl.

Wright became the third Englishman to be a run-out victim to India’s unforeseen but canny ploy of fielding well. On the evidence of this match, if an England batsman offers to assist you across a busy road with your shopping, hide and prepare to call him an ambulance.

Of the other new-generation cricketers, Alastair Cook, also 22, played neatly for one ball before being dismissed by an outstanding ball from Zaheer Khan. Then Ian Bell, 25, again looked a world-beater before finessing another dismissal for himself from thin air.

James Anderson and Stuart Broad (25 and 21 respectively) were assaulted early on by India’s ageing masters, although Broad recovered well and almost guided England home. Monty Panesar, 25, bowled steadily in the face of the onslaught, snared the limping Sachin Tendulkar, then held a steepling catch to defy the expectations of millions (including himself). For India, Piyush Chawla, the teenaged leg spinner, executed a first-rate flight-based goading of Bell and Robin Uthappa, 21, eventually decided the game like the seasoned veteran he is not.

Time will tell which of these relative youngsters steps into the void being left by the departing titans from the 20th century, but both teams have bagged and labelled their World Cup wreckages and begun forging new teams and identities. The World Cup comfortably slotted into most people’s list of Lowest Ten Ebbs for One-Day Cricket. This series, however, has given it the shot in the arm it has so often been prescribed and helped to change the perception that it has become a series of meaningless contests designed to line the pockets of the promoters and advertisers. Like boxing. And war.

This match showed the one-day game close to its best, with flamboyant batting, fielding and umpiring contributing to a fluctuating drama, with the series and all its associated NatWestern glory at stake. As is so often the case, the intoxicating cocktails of world-class brilliance and schoolboy pratfalls, and of new talent and seasoned mastery, created a vivid spectacle.

The Wright stuff

–– Luke Wright was born in Grantham, Lincolnshire, in 1985
–– He made his first-class debut in 2003 for Leicestershire at Hove and made a duck as Sussex won their first championship. In his next first-class match, in 2004, he made 100 for Sussex at the same ground
–– He has a diploma in sports science and massage
–– He is a fan of Newcastle United and likes to listen to Kelly Clarkson
–– He told Hove and Away, the Sussex club magazine, that his guiltiest pleasure is “eating Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream”. He also says he cooks a mean chicken fajita

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