From now on, this tennis fan will be supporting Andy Murray’s opponents, whoever they might be

So, Andy Murray, who divides his time between his Surrey mansion and his Florida apartment, and whose girlfriend is the embodiment of a Home Counties English Rose, and who was cheered to the rafters by millions of English supporters when he won Wimbledon and the Olympics, and who was subsequently voted BBC Sports Personality of the Year mainly by English viewers has declared his support for the Yes campaign, blaming the “relentless negativity” of the No campaign in recent days.

Of course, we’d long suspected that this chippy, charmless, ungrateful, glum moaner was a secret “yes” supporter – he is, after all, the kind of resentful, grudging Scot you’d expect to find in the Yes camp – but I would have thought that even someone as relentlessly adolescent as this sulking drama queen would have realised that pissing off much of the other 90% of the United Kingdom might not be a great career move. Whatever happens in today’s vote, I think Murray can be assured of a distinctly frosty reception from the home crowd at Wimbledon next year, and, should he manage to qualify, at the ATP Tour Finals at the O2 in November.

All he needed to do was keep his mouth shut for another 24 hours. One can only assume that his evidently visceral dislike of the English – who have battled so hard to overcome their lack of natural fondness for him – won out over any consideration for his future reception south of the border. This, of course, is all of a piece with his self-destructive tendency to let his opponents know just how bad he’s feeling during a match - a trait which, had he been able to eliminate it, would probably have brought him at least two more grand slam titles by now: after all, he possesses more natural talent than anyone in the game besides Roger Federer.

I remain a huge admirer of Murray’s tennis-playing abilities. His capture of the US Open title in 2012 was the highlight of my sports-watching career: it was thrilling to see a naturally gifted British player overcome his proclivity for self-pity, self-doubt and negativity, throw off his mental frailties and potentially crippling sciatica to win one of the sport’s major prizes at the fifth time of asking. And I’ll always feel grateful to him for Wimbledon and the Olympics. But now that he’s chosen to wave two fingers at the country that has in effect been his home during the major part of his career, and in the faces of his many English fans, he can do without my support from now on – and, I suspect, the support of millions of others.

When it comes to tennis, I’ve never been a nationalist: the game means too much to me to bother with those sorts of petty considerations. My support of Murray has always been as much to do with the fact that he deserves to win majors as with his Britishness. But now that he’s brought nationalism into the equation, he belongs to that group of distinguished players (e.g. McEnroe, Connors and Nastase) who, despite their genius, always saw me rooting for their opponents, no matter how unexciting and untalented those opponents might have been.

Of course the loss of one old fan in Chiswick won’t matter a damn to Murray. But when he discovers that even as forgiving a race as the English have their limits, he might come to regret last night’s little outburst. Silly, silly boy.