If you thought the Ashes thrashing was as low as it could get for British cricket, you should have been at the Videocon Cricket Academy in Salt Lake on Saturday. To watch England lose to (whisper it) the Americans!

Yes, Britain’s last era of dominance in the world of cricket came to an end — officially — on Saturday afternoon, when the British deputy high commission team was beaten by the American consulate team.

It went down to the wire, with Team Britain losing to Team America by one wicket, that too in the last over. But what counts is that the Pommies were beaten by the Yankees — in cricket. Take that!

This was the first time in five years of annual contests on the Calcutta greens that the traditional lord and masters of the game of cricket were beaten by their transatlantic cousins.

So what was the secret behind Saturday’s success of Team US at a game that elicits about as much national interest as stamp collecting? A key member of the victorious team put it down to “a lot of hard training and desire”.

Yes, Rambo meets Sourav Ganguly was the theme of this great American dream. “We took the match much more seriously this year, with training not being confined to the weekends alone. We even had our own team coach (former Ranji player) Kalyan Mitra,” revealed a deep throat.

The come-from-behind win was as much about strategy as skill. “We were determined to bowl with more consistency and then bat out the entire 25 overs. That won the day… even we were a little surprised, considering that they were younger, fitter… and, well, British,” smiled a victor.