The English are strangely absent from much of their own culture. They have no parliament, no national museum to tell their story, nor any national anthem to call their own. As a result, the pomp and circumstance of the British identity often relegates Englishness to the back seat. Sport is one of the few outlets in which the people of England are able to see themselves represented as a nation and, in the faces of the team players, as a diverse community brought together under the flag of St George.
And when looking for a song to express that inclusive English identity, they increasingly reach for “Jerusalem”. Since the turn of the century, it has become the anthem of choice for the national cricket and rugby union teams and, in 2010, the public voted overwhelmingly for it to replace “Land of Hope and Glory” as the official anthem of Team England at the Commonwealth Games.
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