Brian Viner: Legends of the past are irrelevant to today's heroes

The 'Durham paceman' has an aura. The Boston Strangler had the same aura

As England's cricketers prepare for Thursday's third Test in Barbados, already two up against the West Indies in a four-Test series, people keep banging on about the 1968 series, the last one that England won in the Caribbean. Me too. In fact I made it the subject of a 2,000-word interview with John Snow even before this series began. Snow took 27 Test wickets on that tour, a record for an Englishman in the West Indies, later equalled by The Independent's own Angus Fraser. But the Durham paceman Steve Harmison looks on course to establish a new record.

Incidentally, by referring to Harmison as the "Durham paceman" I am observing an unwritten rule of the sports pages, that no mention of Harmison should go more than a paragraph without the words "Durham paceman". This gives the guy an aura. The Boston Strangler had the same aura. I can imagine Bajan kids shrinking into the shadows as Harmison strides by, saying "there goes the Durham paceman".

But I'm straying from my own line and length. Because what I wanted to write about was the sports enthusiast's preoccupation with the past. In a way it is irrelevant that England last won a series in the West Indies 36 years ago, not least because an opposition which included Garry Sobers, Clive Lloyd, Rohan Kanhai and Lance Gibbs can hardly be compared with one which includes Brian Lara. Lara's reputation, and, with respect, not very much else is likely to stake a claim in the annals of West Indian cricket.

This is not to do that English thing of undermining the achievements of our sportsmen. England have played exceedingly well, and Michael Vaughan has captained with great intelligence, skilfully deploying all his bowlers, in particular the Durham paceman. Moreover, Lara is not the only one unable to sip from the 1968 vintage. Which of Vaughan's batsmen would have displaced Edrich, Boycott, Cowdrey, Barrington or Graveney? Perhaps only Graham Thorpe.

There I go again with the hypotheticals, a game in which hardened professionals usually decline to participate. While the rest of us derive endless pleasure from wondering how Don Bradman might have dealt with Curtly Ambrose and Courtney Walsh at their best, or Sachin Tendulkar with Dennis Lillee and Jeff Thomson, the pros just don't see the point.

It has been my privilege on several occasions down the years to meet the great Richie Benaud, and more than once I have invited him to name his all-time, best-ever XI. His response, delivered with characteristic inscrutability, is always the same: "I will give you a squad of 80, but not a top XI". Next time I'll call his bluff, and say "OK, what's your 80?"

In the meantime, it occurs to me that there is one stonking good reason, whoever you are, to dredge up the past, and that is to help us both to appreciate the present and anticipate the future.

The past teaches us that sport is a cyclical phenomenon. When I was a teenager it seemed, much to my disgruntlement as a season-ticket holder at Goodison Park, as if there would never be a time when Liverpool were not winning championships and European Cups.

During that same period, it seemed unthinkable that the West Indies would ever be less than formidable. West Indian fast bowlers were like those skeletons in Jason and the Argonauts; every time one retired, several more sprang up in his place. Just when Andy Roberts slipped over the hill, along steamed Michael Holding and Malcolm Marshall, who in turn gave way to Ambrose and Walsh. It's possible that Tino Best will demand inclusion in that lineage in years to come, but at the moment a rich tradition is on its uppers.

Similarly, for nearly 15 years following the decline of Tony Jacklin, it was impossible to think of a British golfer winning The Open , let alone the US Masters. And while for some of the 1970s there was a reasonable chance of a British woman triumphing at Wimbledon, as indeed Virginia Wade did, our men had more chance of flying over Centre Court at the head of a herd of pot-bellied pigs. Now, the situation is more or less reversed. And consider how dominant Leicester were not so long ago in rugby union. No individual, and no team, however rich, however strong, can stay forever at the sporting summit. Not even Sir Alex Ferguson's Manchester United.

To put it another way, there will come a time when Arsenal are more likely to go through a season without a win than without a defeat, a time when nobody at Ferrari can remember what it is like to take all the laurels in Formula One, a time when Tiger Woods keeps missing the cut, and a time when Australian cricket is in disarray. All we have to do is live long enough.

b.viner@independent.co.uk