[Cricket] Remembering the Ashes 2005

Simster · May 18, 2020

Arguably the greatest Ashes series of all time, every single match was fascinating, and some of the best cricket we ever saw. It ended up with an open top bus parade saluting England regaining the Ashes for the first times in 16 years as I recall. Australia were just an incredible side in those days (possibly the best Test side ever, although the Windies of the '80s and one or two others might contest that), and England had been gash for a decade.

I don't think the public at large have ever been into cricket in the same way before then, or ever since. I remember going to family garden party and the television was in the corner of the garden with loads of us glued to Channel 4. The promise of one of those kind of summer test series is another sad casualty of this virus. I hope we get to see another series in my lifetime that can hold a candle to that one.

A1X · May 18, 2020

The only sporting event I can remember being treated even remotely similar in catching the public imagination was the 2012 Olympics

big nuts · May 18, 2020

Simster said:
Arguably the greatest Ashes series of all time, every single match was fascinating, and some of the best cricket we ever saw. It ended up with an open top bus parade saluting England regaining the Ashes for the first times in 16 years as I recall. Australia were just an incredible side in those days (possibly the best Test side ever, although the Windies of the '80s and one or two others might contest that), and England had been gash for a decade.

I don't think the public at large have ever been into cricket in the same way before then, or ever since. I remember going to family garden party and the television was in the corner of the garden with loads of us glued to Channel 4. The promise of one of those kind of summer test series is another sad casualty of this virus. I hope we get to see another series in my lifetime that can hold a candle to that one.

England’s form in the two years building up to series was encouraging enough to make this a genuine contest on paper.

We’d beaten a good South Africa team away as well as winning every home series.

Our batting had some depth and a great opening partnership and we knew we had Pietersen at our disposal if selected.

On the bowling front we had a great batch of quicks and the only gaps for me was a match winning spinner versus a decent enough holding one and a top class wicket keeper.

Undoubtedly the best series I’ve ever seen with so many stand out moments. A great summer of cricket enhanced by a quality channel 4 commentary team.

Simster · May 18, 2020

big nuts said:
England’s form in the two years building up to series was encouraging enough to make this a genuine contest on paper.

We’d beaten a good South Africa team away as well as winning every home series.

Our batting had some depth and a great opening partnership and we knew we had Pietersen at our disposal if selected.

On the bowling front we had a great batch of quicks and the only gaps for me was a match winning spinner versus a decent enough holding one and a top class wicket keeper.

Undoubtedly the best series I’ve ever seen with so many stand out moments. A great summer of cricket enhanced by a quality channel 4 commentary team.

Yep, all of that is true. Funny you should talk about quicks, because I still think Simon Jones was the revelation. It was also good to see Ashley Giles respond to his absolute battering in the first test with some genuinely excellent spin bowling. He was never a match for Shane Warne, but when he was good in that series when he needed to be.

Gwylan · May 18, 2020

Simster said:
Arguably the greatest Ashes series of all time, every single match was fascinating,

Yeah, the Ashes series that's usually held up as the best was the 1902 one - but that had a match that was virtually washed out entirely and another one heavily affected by the weather - it's got its reputation purely from the Oval test (which is arguably the greatest single Ashes test)

The 2005 series had five great matches and viewing figures to dream of - cricket had a real chance to build on that and the ECB completely blew it. That's the saddest legacy of that series

Barham's tash · May 18, 2020

I went to the Saturday of the Trent Bridge match. Was absolutely gripping viewing and a fantastic day out on the lash.

Only got tickets because my dad’s other half didn’t check dates with him for their holidays. Oh how we laughed....

Saw Flintoff reach his 100 and England post 477 before reducing Australia to 99-5 at the close. Marvellous.

big nuts · May 18, 2020

Simster said:
Yep, all of that is true. Funny you should talk about quicks, because I still think Simon Jones was the revelation. It was also good to see Ashley Giles respond to his absolute battering in the first test with some genuinely excellent spin bowling. He was never a match for Shane Warne, but when he was good in that series when he needed to be.

Gutted for Simon Jones that the 4th test was his last. He played some matches for Glamorgan but couldn’t put a run of games together to be selected.

He still has the best strike rate of any English Bowler who’s taken more than 50 wickets.

If Hoggard or Harmison didn’t get you with the new ball we had arguably even more dangerous bowlers at first and second change.

Jimmy Grimble · May 18, 2020

Gwylan said:
Yeah, the Ashes series that's usually held up as the best was the 1902 one - but that had a match that was virtually washed out entirely and another one heavily affected by the weather - it's got its reputation purely from the Oval test (which is arguably the greatest single Ashes test)

The 2005 series had five great matches and viewing figures to dream of - cricket had a real chance to build on that and the ECB completely blew it. That's the saddest legacy of that series

Agreed, though it must be said that junior cricket and school cricket has come a long way in recent years.

crodonilson · May 18, 2020

Simster said:
Yep, all of that is true. Funny you should talk about quicks, because I still think Simon Jones was the revelation. It was also good to see Ashley Giles respond to his absolute battering in the first test with some genuinely excellent spin bowling. He was never a match for Shane Warne, but when he was good in that series when he needed to be.

The king of Spain bowled OK, and as you say he held up an end, but he bowled pretty much the whole day at the Old Trafford final day failing to take a single wicket as we had them 9 down at the close.

It was a fantastic series, was it the last broadcast on terrestrial TV?? It certainly could never have had the same impact irrespective of the quality and closeness of the series had it not been free for everyone.

blue-shifted · May 18, 2020

The thing that gets overlooked was that Australia side were considered near-unbeatable. For good reason. Their record, both as a team and a set of individuals stood up with the great West Indies sides of the 70s and early 80s.

We had some promising players but had the scars of throwing away winning positions against them.

If you were making a composite side at the start of their series, there wouldn't be too many Englishmen in there. After losing the first test, I didn't know a single person who gave us a chance against them.

We won with the sheer force of personality of the likes of Freddie and KP (and a bit of luck with a misplaced ball in the outfield).

I'd actually place the Old Trafford test as my favourite. But they were all stupendous games.

blue-shifted · May 18, 2020

Gwylan said:
Yeah, the Ashes series that's usually held up as the best was the 1902 one - but that had a match that was virtually washed out entirely and another one heavily affected by the weather - it's got its reputation purely from the Oval test (which is arguably the greatest single Ashes test)

The 2005 series had five great matches and viewing figures to dream of - cricket had a real chance to build on that and the ECB completely blew it. That's the saddest legacy of that series

Yes. Incredibly, other sports, for example, rugby, F1 are looking at that path and thinking, that's the route for them.

blue-shifted · May 18, 2020

There were more cricket experts in 2005 than there are virology experts now.

People who had never watched a single delivery before 2005 were coming up to me and asking whether I thought Thorpe should come back in for Bell and giving me their views on whether to enforce the follow on or not. The hold it took on the nation was incredible.

Grombleton · May 18, 2020

Some DELIGHTFUL legend has put this up on YouTube. Watched it in parts before, but a lot of memories and some amazing cricket. Enjoy;

LlcoolJ · May 18, 2020

Must have watched the highlights of every match 100 times. It never gets old.

That Edgsbaston test is the worst I've ever felt watching a cricket match, and then one of the best. That's sport.

I think one that came close was this......

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4TsymeZuBY

When again there was that horrible grinding feeling that we were going to blow it, only to pull it out of the bag at the death.

Ooh it’s a corner · May 18, 2020

The strategy of resting our quicks and putting on great replacement fielders eg Gary Pratt was also a big plus. It annoyed Ponting a tad I seem to recall. It was indeed a magnificent series and as others have said the final one to benefit from free-to-air TV coverage which made a real difference to capturing public imagination and buy-in to test cricket. Test matches are still the best imho and while I’ve watched virtually all the coverage of tests that have been available in lockdown can not usually bother with one-day stuff - Jos Buttler excepted I guess

Gwylan · May 18, 2020

Jimmy Grimble said:
Agreed, though it must be said that junior cricket and school cricket has come a long way in recent years.

Not what I can see. My son's cricket team is in a league that has lost half its members over the past few years. And cricket in state schools is a very rare beast indeed.

That's mirrored across the age groups - according to Sport England, the number of people playing cricket in England fell by about 20% between 2016 and 2019 (and that was after a fall of about 30% since the post-Ashes peak).

jakarta · May 18, 2020

LlcoolJ said:
Must have watched the highlights of every match 100 times. It never gets old.

That Edgsbaston test is the worst I've ever felt watching a cricket match, and then one of the best. That's sport.

I will confess I bottled it and went out into the garden to harass some weeds while swearing under my breath 2 bloody nil for the last couple of overs. I have never been shredded so much by a sporting event...

Uh_huh_him · May 18, 2020

Grombleton said:
Some DELIGHTFUL legend has put this up on YouTube. Watched it in parts before, but a lot of memories and some amazing cricket. Enjoy;

I have the DVD set and have watched it many times.

Garry Nelson's teacher · May 18, 2020

Totally agree with the enthusiasm for the series expressed by others. I think what made it even more special was the quality of the Aussie team. In Ponting, Warne, McGrath and Glichrist (FFS!) , they had 4 players who would not only be serious candidates for inclusion in all all-time Aussie XI, but in an all time World XI. Plus Hayden, Langer and Brett Lee!

Had you picked a combined XI from the two teams before the series, I'm not sure how many Englishmen would have got into it. I'm not actually sure how many of our lads would have got into such a team even after the series - but they played out of their skins, had a bit of luck and did the business brilliantly.

Uh_huh_him · May 18, 2020

jakarta said:
I will confess I bottled it and went out into the garden to harass some weeds while swearing under my breath 2 bloody nil for the last couple of overs. I have never been shredded so much by a sporting event...

I did similar, but had the volume on loud enough so that i heard the wicket and ran back in in time to see it given.

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[Cricket] Remembering the Ashes 2005

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