The Ashes goes beyond cricket

Anglo-Australian relations do have the most glorious safety valve: a mechanism unique in diplomacy. On November 25, the valve will return to action. After almost 130 years of mutually satisfying strife, the battle for the Ashes will be joined once again: five Test matches lasting up to five days each, to be played in Australia’s five main capital cities, concluding in the first week of the new year.

Sport and international relations are becoming increasingly muddled: consider the politicisation of the bidding process for the Olympics and for World Cups. The role of the Ashes is far more positive. It is a unique bond between two countries at the uttermost ends of the earth. It is stronger than trade (Australia is well down the UK’s list of partners), stronger than the increasingly irrelevant monarchy, stronger even than the ties of family that, even these days, get frayed or snapped by the tyranny of distance. There is nothing else like it in sport or any other field of endeavour.