Backyard / street cricket

The Ashes 2013-14

A victory for hard work and desire

There have been plenty of low moments for Australia in recent years, but Sunday at the SCG made them feel a lifetime ago. The Ashes celebrations will carry on for a while yet and, writing for the Guardian, Aaron Timms takes a detailed look at what the nature of the whitewash means

Was this the best series victory Australia's cricket team has ever produced? I have no idea; in any event, "best" is a bland superlative. But there's little doubt that this was the most carnal of victories - carnal because it was a pure product of desire, an achievement so driven by lust it could easily pass as a Pedro Almodovar film ("La Revancha: Los Ashes"). And it was a victory that, more than any other in recent memory, the country as a whole could relate to at a deep level, a feast more enjoyable for the famine that preceded it, the kind of win to make you believe in progress, and self-betterment, and the very perfectibility of things.

The kid who finally had to grow up

The most cricketous area in the world

Indian cricket

Sachin, Yuvraj and Sehwag as siblings

Where would you find Steve Waugh and Matthew Hayden rubbing shoulders every day - on the field and off it - with Sehwag, Sachin and Yuvraj? In Thangachimadam village, about 550 km from Chennai, whose good folk have reflected their passion for cricket by naming their children after their favourite players. "In a recent cricket match, I hit a sixer off the last ball when we needed just one run to win," Steve Waugh, a class eight student, told Times of India.

Sehwag, Sachin and Yuvraj are siblings named by their father George after his favourite cricketers. "Everyone in the village and in the school knows my sons only by these names," said George.

Not just cricket, the net's been cast farther to WWE as well. "When my nephew was born a year ago, I suggested he be named after Irish wrestler Sheamus," Castober, a 20-year old from the village, said. "My brother-in-law is very pleased with the name." Sheamus will have Big Show for company.

Names, though, are no guarantee of sporting excellence. Sachin, for example, has showed zero interest in cricket. "I hope Sehwag and Yuvraj will not disappoint me," their father says. Big Show has similar news: "I don't know whether it is because of my name, but I am not good at cricket like my friends Steve Waugh and Hayden."

Once upon a red-clay wicket

Candid camera: losing my head

Bullseye

Braving the Indian summer

The opportunity in a Pakistan Premier League