One of the many joys of this Ashes series is that this summer my daughter has begun to care about cricket.

And there is nothing that reminds you of the beautiful weirdness of the game so much as trying to explain it to a relentlessly curious five-year-old.

First there’s the language of cricket, which frankly bears no resemblance to language we use in the rest of our lives. We’ve resorted to calling “overs” “turns”, “runs” “points” and “bowling” “throws” to help her understand what we’re talking about.

There are the obvious explanatory challenges presented by the rules – watching my husband try to explain lbw (leg before wicket) was a sight to behold – and then there’s just the variability of the game.

“How long does it go for?” she asks. “Five days, but it could be four, or three,” we tell her.

Or – as was the case for the first men’s Ashes Test this year, when we promised her it would still be on the next day when she woke up, and then Travis Head obliterated England’s bowling attack – two.

“But who is winning?” she has asked more times than I can count over the past month. “Well, it doesn’t really work like that,” we........

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