``TEAM spirit is an illusion you only glimpse when you win.'' A canny observation from the former Spurs and Scotland striker Steve Archibald. He's right of course, but togetherness helps.

The England cricket team has had the same nucleus of players for seven months and they feel comfortable in each other's company. Taking the lead from the Atherton-Lloyd brotherhood, close friendships are forming - Thorpe and Hussain, Croft and Gough, Butcher and Ealham which contribute to the bonding process. All have played more for their country (including England A) than their county in that period.

This is crucial. One of the great strengths of the Australians and the West Indies has always been the fact that the individual players were more used to their international colleagues than their provincial ones. How many appearances does Shivnarine Chanderpaul make for Guyana or Mark Waugh for New South Wales? Half a dozen at most. Jimmy Adams confessed he hardly knew some of his Jamaican ``team-mates''. They feel more at home playing for their country, which helps them to relax and enjoy international cricket.

Whereas in the past, the England team have resembled a bunch of aliens, all looking around anxiously trying to identify kindred spirits. There was little common language and the performances were largely incoherent. Sensitive, introverted types like Mark Ramprakash, Chris Lewis and Graeme Hick suffered from this and couldn't wait to nestle back in their county's cosy nest.

But now a team spirit is melding, which the announcement of the squad for the third Test can only enhance. Relationships are sprouting, and, like pairs of deep-sea divers, there is always a 'buddy' around to rely on in murky water. The Thorpe-Hussain partnership at Edgbaston was based on co-operation, Gough and Croft operate superbly in tandem, bowling for each other, and invigorating the others with their dressing room frolics. The acid test of their community spirit will come if they happen to lose at Old Trafford.

Fat chance of that. Not only are England's top six a better unit than Australia's, but also they will get more vocal support in Manchester and the weather forecast is poor, further testing the teams' indoor resourcefulness. So whatever do they do when it rains? The multitude of sport on Sky has relieved some of the tedium, but anyway some teams are quite inventive. Worcester indulge the most intelligent pursuit, playing ``Taboo'' a game demanding precise descriptions of nouns and adjectives without alluding to the word itself. On Friday the 'Scholars' Curtis, Newport and Weston lost to the 'Duds' Moody, Lampitt and Houghton. Meanwhile, a watery June has enabled Lancashire to beat several other counties at football. Respecting this, Worcester rejected the offer of a game unless they could play rugby against them afterwards.

Elsewhere, cards remain a favourite pastime. At Lord's the Australians killed time playing 500, Taylor and Bevan against Blewett and Warne, and as the skies darkened, so did the mood around the table. The Middlesex dressing room always reverberated to the friendly bickering over Last Card! brag or pontoon (and still does). ``Royal flush beats a full house dumbo,'' John Emburey might remonstrate, or Mike Gatting would rail: ``Oi, you didn't say Last Card!''

Cards was the only thing that could prise Gatting away from the TV, and if golf or an old western was on, nothing could. Sometimes he had the volume turned up so loud you'd be able to hear the pop-pop-peeow in the committee room below and Gubby Allen would rap on the floor with his walking stick. Gatting was on occasion even found watching Postman Pat.

Anything, in fact, to defer the laborious task of filling in umpires reports, another job for a rainy day. ``How was Knocker [Bob White] at Southampton, good yeh?'' ``I thought my lbw to Connor was missing leg,'' a batsman replied. ``And hitting middle,'' Fraser retorted. ``How about Alan Whitehead?'' ``Well, we lured him into our card lair and cleaned him out,'' said Keith Brown smirking. By such estimation do the men in white coats progress.

Younger, more testosterone-loaded players indulge in tennis ball cricket, flicking dastardly spinners out of the back of the hand to a batsman hemmed in by close fielders protecting an upturned ``coffin'' as a wicket. Ramprakash was always king of this game, and looks equally hard to dislodge in the middle at present, in spite of having to bat on a sequence of difficult surfaces. He is, without doubt, the best technically equipped batsman in Britain, but unless he is prepared to open, may have to rely on others getting injured for another chance on the international stage.

With the return from school of the precocious Owais Shah and the arrival of the athletic seam bowler Tim Bloomfield, Ramprakash's Middlesex have a predatory look again, and having seen off Kent in the NatWest on Tuesday, might be a good bet for that trophy. Their outcricket was effervescent and Gatting buzzed around like a little boy allowed out to play again. He appears trimmer, but four days temptation in the proximity of Bryans of Headingley, a wonderful fish and chip restaurant where the 'baby' haddock laps over the plate both sides, might put paid to that.