Could a Cumbrian wind farm be left stumped by the local cricket club?

The emergence of the England cricket team as a crack squad of willow-wielding supermen has left many English cricket fans feeling a touch uneasy. Delighted, of course, but also a little disorientated.

Firstly, there is the utter brilliance of having the world's best cricket team, an experience that anyone who came of age as a cricket fan at any point over the past 30 years will find unremittingly bizarre. Even at our very best we were always a bunch of eager triers, forever destined to follow a couple of series wins with an utterly chastening humiliation at the hands of the West Indies or the Australians.

Secondly, there is the manner in which Andrew Strauss and his merry men secured their title as the World's Best Cricket Team, with performances of such unrelenting intensity you could only assume that prior to their ascent up the world rankings the team had spent a week imprisoned in a laboratory somewhere having the Englishness surgically removed. Although, transplanting a few South Africans into the team and appointing a Zimbabwean as a coach may also have helped.

Where was the first ball Harmison-wide, the captain drunkenly toppling off a pedalo, the star all-rounder deliberately running out the opening batsman? Where were the type of England players we knew and loved/tolerated: the Hicks, the Ramprakashes, the Mark Ealhams?

Instead, we have seen a team of super-committed athletes taking visible delight in crushing their opposition into the ground. It has been a confusingly exhilarating summer.

As such the Sceptic Tank was delighted to learn of a cricketing story of such exquisite Englishness that it more than compensates for the otherworldliness of our top players.

It turns out that a cricket team in Cumbria is appealing against a wind farm planning application because the turbines will distract the batsmen.

We've all watched Sachin Tendulkar or Kevin Pietersen express their frustration at elderly gentlemen inconsiderately moving around behind the bowler's arm, but your average village cricketer can be just as precious and simply will not tolerate a wind turbine messing with their eye line.

According to reports in the local Times & Star, the planning application from developer Peel Energy for a three turbine wind farm at the brilliantly named Soddy Gap outside Broughton has already been rejected by councilors on the grounds that the turbines would have a negative impact on the area.

But, like a cricketer seeking an against the odds LBW decision, the company has now lodged an appeal, prompting one councillor in Broughton to launch their own official objection to the development on the grounds the turbines will limit the use of the cricket pitch.

As a rule the Sceptic Tank loves wind turbines, but he also loves cricket and finds himself instinctively siding with the plucky villagers and mulling over whether he can somehow sell the rights to Richard Curtis as the basis for his next heart-warming slice of stereotyping.

Then again, having spent a childhood witnessing the standard of village cricket on pitches with trees in the outfield, gravel on the square, and busy roads behind the bowler's arm, there is a case for arguing that a wind turbine or two is not likely to make that much difference to the average of most club cricketers. In fact, perhaps the good cricketers of Broughton should drop their objections to the wind farm, as it would give them the perfect excuse the next time they suffer the indignity of a first ball duck.