In this letter to the Times, the author suggests why we should not be so depressed about our nation’s sporting performances:

“We introduced many modern sports to the world, we continue to have aspirations in most of them and this spreads our limited talent too thinly… England should challenge every nation in the world to a triple crown series, playing one match each of cricket, football and rugby”

It’s hard to think of many nations who would do much better than us in that.