Ed, having been at Trent Bridge on Thursday I can assure you that Hussain's ton, welcome though it was, was hugely eclipsed by Butcher's. When Butcher is flowing, it's almost as fine a spectacle as when Stewart on the top of his form (very rare is these days).

Such moments make cricket a joy to behold in a way that,for me, baseball could never match. Neither does baseball have much opportunity for the overt person-to-person menace that can creep into cricket, as it did for instance with the Donald v Atherton hostilities the last time England played SA at Trent Bridge.