Cricket - The Ashes

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Disappointing performance today, to say the least. After yesterday's failure from the bowlers, no real chance. I assumed after going up in the first innings, England had it.

Last Ashes series I watched was 2005. No longer available to watch live free-to-air in UK, have I got that right?

Can't identify with the modern game anyway - players with tattoos, strange beards, garish outfits, video reviews for umpiring decisions, etc, etc....

Poms choked again

Sky killed it stone dead for me. I just stopped watching it after the Beeb stopped showing it and I wasn't going to pay a Sky subscription just for cricket.

I used to go and watch test matches in the late 80s/early 90s, at Old Trafford and Headingly. I've watched England play Australia, West Indies, Pakistan, New Zealand. The crowds are the best bit... each nation was entertaining in its own way, but the Windies were absolutely crazy.

In those days Umpire Shepherd used to do his little jig when the score was on a nelson.

Got rained on a fair few times, too.

I miss umpire Dickie Bird....mostly because I enjoyed saying dickie....

TV commentaries were never the same after Jim Laker passed away. I used to love the way he said 'battin' and 'bowlin'. Not so keen on John Arlott, glad he was mostly confined to radio. I once met him, and he seemed like a bit of a cantankerous old bastard.

king of commentators was Geoffrey Boycott

It was usually Dickie and Sheppo when I went.

I used to like it when they sent him to inspect the wicket...

"Just look at how the ground's cracked here" ... then he'd get his car keys out and ram his key into the ground just in front of the crease, riving it all up. Wouldn't fancy being the next guy out to bat (which would presumably be an Aussie).

And in those days we had the magnificent Merv Hughes... proud to say I witnessed him in full flight.

One of my most vivid memories from an Ashes series:

It's 1985, and England have surpassed Australia's first innings total by a considerable amount, when Ian Botham comes in to bat late in the afternoon. First ball from one of the Aussie pacemen, Botham whacks it straight back over the bowler's head and out of the ground for six. Second ball, he does exactly the same thing. Third ball he smashes away on the leg-side, it lands a few feet inside the boundary and goes for four. Fourth ball, he hooks it and gets caught on the boundary. Out for 16, after about 3 minutes at the crease.

I think England declared shortly after, and took three quick Aussie wickets before the close, to leave the tourists on something like 17-3. A guy called Richard Ellison took the wickets, as I recall, and seemed a very promising prospect, but he disappeared without trace after that, certainly as far as test cricket was concerned.

Can't remember the venue of this test match, but England were very impressive in the series, and won it comfortably (maybe 3-1?).

Last time when "England ruled the waves" in cricket they were captained by the brilliant mind of Michael Brearley and spear headed by the pace of Bob Willis/Iam Botham and Dereck Randall/David Gower dominated the batting top order.

England's demise as a test team coincided with the appointment of Mike Gatting in the late 1980s much the same way the West Indies fell into an abyss when Richie Richardson was appointed captain of their previously world beating team in the early 1990s.

England had a pretty good few years in the early years of the 21st century, under Nasser Hussain and then Michael Vaughan. Those years encompassed series wins in Sri Lanka and Pakistan, as well as the memorable 2005 Ashes win against the Aussies, of course.

There were low points as well, needless to say, notably when they went to Australia shortly after the 2005 success and fell flat on their faces to lose 5-0.

Victories against Sri Lanka and Pakistan aren't exactly earth shattering but Australia had a dip in the mid 2000s and coincidentally England had an enormously talented balling attack in Freddie Flintoff and Andrew Harmison who rightfully helped England win the 2005 ashes series at home.

I'd be inclined to disagree with you about Sri Lanka and Pakistan in that era. The former had players like De Silva, Jayasuriya, Jayawardene and Muralitharan, and reached three World Cup finals. Pakistan had Wasim Akram, Waquar Younis, Inzamam-Ul-Haq, Saeed Anwar and Shoaib Akhtar . It was no easy task to face these sides on their home turf.

Yes these countries are notorious for doctoring their pitches so I'll give credit to the English for taking them on their home turf.

That's essentially true about Gatting. He came across as a rather oikish, not very bright sort of character. Old-school cricket followers who remembered the side being led by the likes of Cowdrey, Dexter, MJK Smith and Brearley himself, must have been horrified and maybe reflected that the 'democratization' of the game might not be an entirely welcome development.

Gatting, to be fair, did get off to an excellent start with a surprise series win in Australia in 1986-7 (though some might say that Chris Broad won that series single-handedly!). But he was unable to build on that as the side stumbled on through the late 80s and early 90s.

Gower was also deficient as England captain in the mid 80s. He always came across as too dilettantish and playboy-like for the role. There were good series wins in India (1984-5) and against Australia (1985), but I also recall his foolish 'sporting declaration' against the West Indies in the second test (1984), when he set the opposition 344 to win on the final day, and seemed surprised when they knocked off the runs for the loss of only one wicket, showing contempt for England's powder puff attack. That put the Windies 2-0 up after two matches, and was psychologically devastating. Needless to say, they won the series 5-0, and when Gower's side was blown away in the Carribean in 1985-6 (5-0 again), that was the end of him as captain.