Swashbuckling Boris tried to make his innings at No 10 all about thrash and thwack — it left him, and us, stumped

Boris Johnson tried to take a leaf out of the free-swinging, all-out-attacking, anything goes style of Britain’s bolshy cricketers. But for true statesmanship, look to Gareth Southgate, writes Jim White

Bozball, Boris Johnson’s tradition-busting, foot-on-the-throttle, all-out attacking politics, is a goner (Dibyangshu Sarkar/AFP/Getty Images))

So that’s it then: “Bozball” is consigned to history. All out. Dismissed with not so much a golden duck as a daffy one. This should not be confused with “Bazball”, the magnificent, era-defining thrash and dash conjured up by the England cricket team. Narrow defeat to the world champions Australia does not consign that glorious iteration of the game to the history books. Our Bazball boys are brave revolutionaries, certain to prove undaunted by a single setback. And for the rest of the summer, we will surely still be able to relish Ben Stokes and his men delivering their unique brand of tradition-busting, foot-on-the-throttle, all-out attacking cricket.

On the other hand, Bozball, Boris Johnson’s tradition-busting, foot-on-the-throttle, all-out attacking politics, is a goner. Some may claim he is still biding his time and like his hero Winston Churchill, he will once more step down the pavilion steps and make his way to the crease in triumph. That view, however, is, as he himself might put it, piffle. Bozball is dead. Deader than the Rawalpindi wicket on the fifth day of a Test match. And there is no one to blame other than the man who invented the genre.