Passion wears an anorak

Is this the KP touch? No sooner does he spring into the team, bat under arm, than England are in the Super Eights. They catch, they bat, they bowl, they throw. Pietersen stands totemic. That neck could hold its own in a nightclub brawl, and when the boy wonder draped his arm around Adil Rashid in congratulation, he looked like a prince with his page. Then chirpy Luke Wright deferred to him when accepting the Man of the Match award. England's mojo speaks with a Pietermaritzburg accent.

England certainly needed Pietersen after the Lord's balls-up against the Netherlands. But to the armchair fan, that game had it all: the straining, staring eyeballs of a sweaty Edgar Schiferli as he prepared to face the last ball, the mad charge of the Dutch players onto the field when they won, the overthrows, Bopara and Wright, the sense of complacency becoming confidence draining into panic, even the traditional English botched, is it, isn't it, oh-its-raining, opening ceremony.

The MCC members stayed away from that game in droves; the fools, because it was wonderful. Lord's looked gorgeous too - grand and dramatic with its new permanent floodlights, which deserved their moment of glory. Their debut match, Middlesex's Twenty20 game against Kent, was rather overshadowed by the Champions League final the same night.

The IPL must be kicking itself that it chose South Africa over England to host the tournament this spring. Dancers in fleeces, crowd in anoraks, temperature hovering around 12 degrees - yes we know how to create a party atmosphere in these parts.

But at least we are anoraked with a passion. The spectators have been loving it. England and Pakistani fans seemed to rub along famously at The Oval. And the India-Bangladesh game at Trent Bridge was packed full with raucous British Asians. I can't think of any other major sport that would attract such a large number.

The ECB's challenge is to get some more of these fans in through the turnstiles to watch England play international cricket, or, even more of a challenge, to join a county cricket club. The Tebbit Test is long forgotten, support who you like - after all England play who they like: one South African, one lrishman, and an English-born Australian yesterday. This English team also has three British Asians in it; one of them, Bopara, is proving something of a heartthrob. Come on, ECB: splash on your aftershave, mush up your hair and woo that suitor like she's never been wooed before.