LONDON: The Queen sent her congratulations to England’s World Cup winners after their incredible triumph against New Zealand on Sunday at Lord’s.

Celebrating the victory, the Queen wrote: “Prince Philip and I send our warmest congratulations to the England Men’s Cricket team after such a thrilling victory in today’s World Cup final.

“I also extend my commiserations to the runners-up New Zealand, who competed so admirably in today’s contest and throughout the tournament.”

Britain’s Royal Mail postal service announced it would mark both the World Cup win and England’s victory at the 2017 Women’s World Cup with a series of special stamps.

The Royal Mail will also decorate 15 post boxes in white with a stylised gold cricket bat, ball and bat to make the achievement of both England teams at the host grounds and in locations of importance to men’s captain Eoin Morgan and 2017 women’s skipper Heather Knight.

The paintwork will be in place for three months and will be complemented by permanent gold plaques.

In 2012, Royal Mail painted some of its red post boxes gold to celebrate every British gold medal during the London 2012 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games.

EU felicitates England

Britain may be in the middle of a painful divorce from the EU, but Brexit did not stop Brussels congratulating England on Monday on their dramatic cricket triumph.

Before moving to the usual round of questions about migration, US trade relations and EU competition rules, European Commission chief spokesman Margaritis Schinas used a daily briefing with journalists to hail the win.

“Congratulations to the England cricket team on winning the men’s cricket World Cup in a nail-biting final against New Zealand. Cricket is coming home!” said the smiling Greek spokesman, whose enthusiasm for the game had previously passed unnoticed.

Schinas followed his warm words for England with similarly enthusiastic congratulations for the Portuguese roller hockey team, who saw off Argentina in the final of their own world cup on Sunday.

Published in Dawn, July 16th, 2019