| Series | Countries | Live Scores | Fixtures | Results | News |
Features
|
Photos | Video & Audio | Blogs | Statistics | Archive | Games | Mobile | ||||||||||||||||||||
Turning Points
Feeds
Feeds
Events and people that shaped the game
|
No. 6
Rise of the Ashes
From a burnt bail to the biggest crowds, the highest ratings and the tallest hoopla
January 30, 2010
Text size: A | A
|
|||
|
Related Links
News : A short history of the Ashes
Match reports : England v Australia 1882 Matches:
England v Australia at The Oval
Other links:
Cricket's Turning Points
|
|||
1882
They began with a shock Australian victory and a bail burnt in horror. But only by their very narrowest definition are the Ashes about a sporting contest or the spurious contents of a miniscule urn. For 50 years their appeal was plain: a chance for Poms to flex colonial muscle, and for Australians to prove that being shipped to an empty land did not empty one's brain and body too.
Today the primacy of the Ashes is tougher to explain. To suggest it is about avenging Gallipoli or Bodyline is too romantic. Over much of the last 40 years England and Australia have not played each other as the world's best teams; in terms of relevance the Border-Gavaskar Trophy has often eclipsed it. And yet it is the Ashes that generate the biggest crowds, highest ratings, tallest hoopla - more so, in Anglo-Australian households, than even the World Cup. In a world where results can be fixed and TVs know better than umpires, the Ashes remind us why we fell for cricket to begin with. Partly, then, it is about tradition; mostly it is unexplainable. Long may it remain so.
Christian Ryan is a writer based in Melbourne. He is the author of Golden Boy: Kim Hughes and the Bad Old Days of Australian Cricket, published in March 2009.The Turning Points series was first published in Wisden Asia Cricket magazine in 2003
Feeds: Christian Ryan
© ESPN EMEA Ltd.
TopE-mail
Feedback
Print
Christian Ryan
Christian Ryan lives in Melbourne, writes and edits,
was once the editor of The Monthly magazine and Wisden
Australia, and now bowls low-grade, high-bouncing legbreaks with
renewed zeal in recognition of Stuart MacGill's retirement and the selection
opportunities this presents. He is the author of Golden Boy: Kim Hughes and the Bad Old Days of Australian Cricket and Australia: Story of a Cricket Country
How to turn from a nobody into an IPL star
Aakash Chopra: Apart from plenty of luck, you need to pick your team wisely, bat at the top and have your captain's support
Fixing? It's people like us doing it
Ed Hawkins: It's convenient to blame the underworld for every instance of fixing, but it's ordinary punters behind many of them
The perils of scoffing at failure
Rob Steen: Excessive success can destroy inhibition, and hence the capacity for shame
New Zealand shaken and stirred
Andrew Alderson: The second-innings collapse at Lord's has revived concerns about New Zealand's top order
The divine madness of Kevin Pietersen
Jon Hotten: Players like him, when absent, stir a yearning in the spectator that has nothing to do with team loyalty
A talent that didn't know its own worth
Sreesanth wasn't the most likeable team-mate or opponent, but he had skill beyond doubt, which we might have seen the last of
Even at the height of his success with the national side, Sreesanth was a lonely cricketer who felt hard done by
Pollard sledges Watson, Dravid is angry
Plays of the day from the IPL match between Mumbai Indians and Rajasthan Royals in Mumbai
A time for anger, a time for action
Out of the shattered lives of three young men caught up in allegations of fraud, newer and stronger players must emerge
Mumbai Indians still have a better head-to-head record against Chennai Super Kings, but once again on the big occasion, they came second
Even at the height of his success with the national side, Sreesanth was a lonely cricketer who felt hard done by
Mumbai Indians still have a better head-to-head record against Chennai Super Kings, but once again on the big occasion, they came second
Anderson's magic not to be missed (50)
None of the other three England bowlers with 300 Test wickets - or many other of the game's finest swing merchants - could have bowled better than James Anderson at Lord's
A case of peaking too early (41)
Royal Challengers began the season in full steam, but failed to replicate their consistency away from home
"Minimise sixes" - Two words sum up farcical contest (40)
The eight-over dash between Bangalore and Chennai was as close as cricket played on the field can get to cricket played on smartphone apps
Sponsored Links
ICICI Bank M2I. Register Now and Get A Gift Offer.
Safe & simple online money transfer. Apply Now!
Buy Wisden 2013 & get a FREE Playfair
Available now at Cricshop
