Daily life is less glamorous for Bal. He works as an accountant, though he is also a semi-professional cricketer, playing for Didcot and having recently signed to Harefield.

“Accountancy is fun – I’m going to say that because it pays for my whole life – but this was something extremely new,” he says.

“I’m a guy who likes new experiences and meeting new people and that’s what it gave me.”

Bal sent a two-minute video to the Mr England team that received positive feedback on social media, although “people at my cricket club were taking the ‘bleep’ out of me,” he recalls, fondly.

His video received more than a quarter million views, and he started getting good luck messages from around the world.

There was an added element, as Bal was reminded before he set off for the contest.

“One of my close friends told me before the finals: ‘Bal, what you’re doing, you’re not just representing our town… you’re representing so much more.

“‘All those South Asians who have immigrated to England, you’re representing them. Even those living abroad in other countries.’

“That really hit me. So when I was going to the finals I knew the magnitude of it. It was something that massive.

“It made me know that what I was doing was something to be proud of but something I was really lucky and blessed to be doing.”