Don Bradman was the focus of the initial serious read I remember going through as a child. To a young pupil, the injustice of an England's skipper ordering his countrymen to target a brilliant Australian was hard to grasp. Thus, like many, I developed a dislike for England.
Anticipation for the Ashes? It goes without saying. Cricket’s calendar makes this a special occasion to observe two of the world’s best teams challenge and provoke each other over what we anticipate will be five Tests of interrogation with the traditional red ball.
As the celebrated all-rounder reminded us last week at the launch of the ticket draw for the historic 2027 match, the Ashes has a unique appeal. “Historically, fans globally tunes into the Ashes,” he remarked. “It's about heritage, it’s the competition, you know that’s it all flat out.”
In England, those two recent drawn series – marked by Steve Smith’s mountain of runs and Ben Stokes’ Headingley masterpiece in 2019, and the Lord’s Long Room disgrace of 2023 – have met the expectations of what an Ashes contest should be. However, they have not had the equivalent resonance on the other side of the world when many locals nods off before the afternoon session begins.
On Australian soil, the Ashes has been more subdued than just flat for more than a decade. Australians expect their team to win and win handily, as it has been since the nineties. Scott Boland’s 6-7 at the MCG wasn’t born from a fierce duel, it was a comical English collapse reinforcing perceptions. A genuine contest should not be this way.
The Sport's Commentators Must Now Crouch Down at the Ashes’ Waning Embers and Whistle Oxygen
England's squad were greeted upon arrival by a tired headline in the local tabloid, “Baz Bawl”, supported by a description of the highly regarded Ben Stokes as “cocky”. The publication then had a dig at “Mediocre” Root, also known as “Flop Root in Australia”. It was enough to elicit a typical media response, allowing the press to extract every last drop in the days before the series begins.
In contrast, last year’s Border-Gavaskar Trophy between the Aussies and India sparked something all by itself. The spiritual peak was that MCG experience, a moment that cannot be extinguished. The numbers, also, impressed. Over 800,000 were present across the series, the fourth highest for any series in Australia and the highest for any non-Ashes matchup. Viewers were captivated, similar to the ratings surge for India's UK visit this year, and eight sessions averaged more than two million TV fans.
Lately, the emotional if unofficial farewells of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli at the Sydney Cricket Ground made one-day cricket actually mean something. Compare the news title following the previous occasion England came here for a white ball tour: “Smallest attendance for an ODI match sparks concerns for ODI cricket's survival”.
The Growing Clout of Indian Cricket
Even though bad weather disrupted the T20 series with India, what play we saw suggests Australia are some way off the short form’s global benchmark. For the women's game, at the global tournament last month, the host nation defeated the title holders. The all-format contest kicking off in February-March is primed as a de facto world championship.
It’s easy to overlook the colorful fan groups that gather at India’s matches – across all formats – as a simple reflection of the vast diaspora of the world’s most populous nation. However, to financial analysts and television executives, they are an elixir.
India now matters more to Australia than its historical roots, given the countries share an sea, shared colonial history, and increasingly their peoples. India will likely overtake the UK, according to official statistics, as the source of the biggest contingent of immigrants as early as this year. The struggling defence pact is prompting a realignment of security priorities respecting the rising power of Asian powers, a shift that occurred years back in the sport of cricket.
The former Australian skipper, who also led the Indian team, noted last week that England was “our biggest traditional rival”, but also that “to be fair, if not for India, the sport would suffer”.
The Final Challenge
Until Australia claimed the trophy last summer, India had held it for a decade. In India, Australia haven’t won in more than 20 years. Should the hosts win back the urn easily this summer, losing the multi-match series in India in the coming years would make this period incomplete.
The long-awaited win on the Indian soil remains the final proving ground for today's players, and a blip against England this summer – put down to unfortunate bowler injury, similar to 2005 and Glenn McGrath’s freak rolled ankle – would only add to the narrative.
England have not won an Ashes Test in Australia for nearly fifteen years, and as rich as the lore may be, it cannot sustain a one-sided contest indefinitely. So, with a vibrant Indian team having recently departed, the English squad have a lot at stake. Win the series and remain significant. Or surrender the trophy and with it an irreplaceable asset: the claim to being the top opponent. We beg the English, raise your game.
