Hollywood could never match sport’s real-life fairytale endings

From Stuart Broad to Chris Hoy, sport has delivered so many perfect departures, in glorious circumstances, writes Jim White. If you put these magical moments in a movie, they would be mocked for being so improbable

Stuart Broad ended his Test career in style (Mike Egerton/PA)

“Pretty cool,” was how the man himself described it. Others were more effusive. Indeed, on Monday when Stuart Broad brought an end to his Test career by securing victory for England against Australia through the simple process of taking a wicket with his final delivery – this after hitting a six from the last ball he faced as a batter – it was such an extraordinary conclusion, for many it could only be rationalised as part of a preconceived script.

“It was written in the stars,” said his captain, Ben Stokes.

If not quite as celestial, for many of us a Hollywood ending was the widely shared assumption, as if Broad had been a participant in a movie. Not that many scriptwriters would dare conjure up a conclusion as perfectly rounded as his, and there was something ridiculous about the manner in which he had seized his moment.