What is the story with ‘poms’. They’re at it again. If it isn’t Rugby League players having to go home with excuses of being overworked, it will be cricketers telling us they can’t cope with being away from their ‘sceptered isle’.

The events of the last fortnight have prompted me to come up with a list of reasons for being depressed based on your place of birth. In Australia we have an endearing phrase that gets a great deal of airplay when describing the character of Britain’s inhabitants. We call them ‘whingeing poms’. And the performances of Marcus Trescothick and Sean Long recently, only serve to reinforce the famous Australianism.