There’s a certain type of man – middle-aged, brought up in a Commonwealth country – who, when things are going really well, will get up from his desk and (when no one is watching) dispatch an imaginary cricket ball to the cover boundary with an elegant swish.

The cover drive: perhaps human civilisation’s greatest achievement. To see David Gower, the former England captain, execute a cover drive was to experience pure bliss. I am not exaggerating.