IF you test your Scottishness by the level of your antipathy to England and the English, then you have failed the test. In sport, I would put it even more simply – if you are one of those people who wants everyone to beat England at anything, then I’m sorry, you just don’t get the point about Scottishness or about sport.

Being Scottish is not about England or the English, it’s about Scotland and the Scots, and the sooner that small minority who think they are being Scottish patriots by disliking England come to their senses, the sooner we can move on, win independence and take our proper place in Europe and the world. Yes, we can detest the fact we are tied to England in a very unequal union, and yes, deplore the anti-immigration Brexit vote by millions of English people that might make you want to re-erect Hadrian’s Wall from our side, but hating England and the English is just ludicrous.

All of which is an introduction to the confession I have always wanted to make: apart from when they are playing the West Indies – Richards, Lloyd, Garner, Lara, need I say more? – I support the English cricket teams, male and female. Of course, I am a fan of Scotland’s cricket teams first and foremost, but for almost 40 years I have followed the fortunes of England and am always delighted when they win. I played the game at a school where one teacher was an enthusiast and inspired us to play. I never joined a club, but played intermittently down the years, and always enjoyed the game. But why England?

It was the third Test of the 1981 Ashes series at Headingley which sealed my affection for England’s cricket team. The cricketing cognoscenti will need no reminding that it was arguably the single greatest Test performance by an individual which gained England victory in an enthralling match.

I was laid up after my first cartilage operation and watched the whole match, barely believing my eyes when Ian Botham defied all the odds to make history – it was only the second time that a Test had been won by the side that followed on.

Ably assisted by Bob Willis, it was Botham, with spectacular efforts with bat and ball, who gained a win that had looked impossible when Australia’s bowlers, led by the great Dennis Lillee, skittled out England for 174 for a lead of 227.

Australia had won the first Test and the second had been drawn, so Botham’s 149 knock in the second innings and Willis’s eight wickets for 43 runs in bowling out Australia for just 111 runs made this victory by 18 runs utterly crucial and the turning point of the series. Botham did it again in the fourth Test, taking five wickets for 11 runs and in the process destroying Australia’s second innings. I sat there with my leg up, a lad from the not quite yet post-industrial west of Scotland willing England to win, and it started a love affair that has never wavered, except, as I said, when they meet the West Indies.

Over nearly four decades, I have followed all the greats of English cricket avidly – Boycott, Gooch, Gower, Atherton, Gough, Flintoff, Pietersen, Vaughan, Bell, Hussein, Strauss, Anderson, and my own favourite wicket-keeper of all time, Alec Stewart, as well as the aforementioned Botham and Willis who were so ably captained by Mike Brearley, probably the best captain before Alistair Cook.

Mind you, the glorification of the 2005 England Ashes win into some kind of a monumental British victory was just bonkers – remember the bus through London, the singing of Jerusalem in Trafalgar Square and the live coverage on three television channels? Whatever happened to that English sense of decorum in triumph? Still, I was pleased England won. The Australians had been uber-arrogant, with Glenn McGrath suggesting they would inflict a series whitewash, and that stunning win by just two runs – the narrowest in Ashes history – in the second Test at Edgbaston remains a thrilling memory 11 years on.

So what to make of the current team? England just about hold their own in the one-day internationals and Twenty20s, but it is Test cricket that is the real forum of the sport, the arena by which teams are considered, and the greatest examination of players and teams. And despite everything you may have read in the doom-laden London-centric media, England are still officially ranked as the second-best Test team in the world.

Right now, they are said to be failures because they have lost the series in India, and there’s already the usual wailing and gnashing of teeth from the pundits and former players. I am sorry, but there is just the hint of a racist attitude in those belittling Cook and his team because they lost to India, didn’t they, and England just should not get beaten by India, should they?

Utter folly. English expectations were far too high. They had beaten India in the last three series, but I suspect not many people down south had really appreciated the remarkable recent rise of a truly great India side who hammered South Africa and New Zealand 3-0 in their last two Test series.

Virat Kohli is an extraordinary batsman and captain, backed at the crease by the likes of Murali Vijay and Cheteshwar Pujara, while in Ravichandran Ashwin they have a spin bowler of sheer genius. And they are only going to get better.

So from a Scottish fan of England, here’s a word of advice. English cricket has had ups and downs, but losing to a wonderful Indian team is not one of the latter. Stick by the current captain and continue to bring in the likes of Keaton Jennings and England will be back as No 1 team in the world before long. In the meantime, we should all appreciate the achievements of India, even if they have meant defeat for “my” team.