Cricketer hopes fans ‘get very drunk’

England cricketer Graeme Swann has said that he hopes the country’s cricket fans can get ‘very drunk’ this summer in celebrating an Ashes victory.

England’s summer Test series against Australia starts at Trent Bridge in Nottingham tomorrow and Swann hopes the UK’s summer of sporting success can continue with the cricket. Last weekend saw the British and Irish Lions win its rugby series in Australia and this was followed by Andy Murray ending Britain’s 77-year wait for a men’s Wimbledon singles champion.

With cricket set to take sport’s centre stage from Wednesday, Swann said: “There’s a feel good factor that comes from a nation’s sporting teams doing well and we hope to tap into that. We will be desperate to win this Ashes.

“If I wasn’t playing in this series I would be standing in a pub come Wednesday afternoon for six weeks solid cheering on England.

“Hopefully we can provide a lot of people with a lot of reasons to get very drunk.”

England start the five-match series as favourites and if the team does win it will become the first England side to win three successive Ashes series since 1896.