The rise of Swann and other Ashes tales

Eleven years ago Duncan Fletcher had just taken charge of England. One of his first jobs was to pick a squad to tour South Africa that winter. Among the 17 players Fletcher selected was a whippersnapper named Graeme Swann. Fletcher had never met Swann but had heard good things about his off-breaks. Before the squad boarded the plane at Heathrow, he took Swann to one side in the departure lounge for a quick get-to-know-you chat. "Where do you see yourself in five years' time?" asked Fletcher. Swann, Fletcher remembers, turned around and said: "I am going to be the best spin bowler in the world."

"I've always remembered that conversation," says Fletcher. "I hardly knew the boy. 'Sheesh!' I thought. 'That's good, I like that.' But when we got to South Africa and I saw his attitude I thought: 'Boy, you're going nowhere.'" Fletcher, as every English cricket fan now knows, never picked Swann again.

Merv Hughes had eased off the takeaways and was fulfilling a lifelong dream of facing England in the Ashes, and he had started well, dismissing Mike Gatting, Allan Lamb and John Emburey.

Botham was approaching his hundred, though. He took two off the first ball of the over to go to 99. He then hammered Hughes back over his head for two to reach three figures, before a six soared over deep square leg. Bob Willis, commentating on Channel Nine, purred: “People should savour every moment they can to watch this player; they only come once in a lifetime.”