With the Ashes due to get underway in less than a week the hype surrounding the tournament is reaching new levels of intensity. Acres of newsprint and hundreds of hours of radio and television coverage have already been dedicated to the event. In the UK, there seems to have been an unspoken decision to forget about the 5-0 Aussie whitewash Down Under in 2006/07. Most of the coverage has been centred around misty-eyed nostalgia over England’s triumph in the 2005 series. Since that series both teams have gone through large changes in their personnel. While it can be argued that England now have a team equal to or better than their 2005 counterparts, the current Australian team does not appear to match up to the 2005 vintage. They have seen four of their biggest names and most potent weapons retire from the international arena. Losing Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath, Matthew Hayden and Adam Gilchrist has undoubtedly weakened their side. Of course it is possible their replacements, Nathan Huritz, Mitchell Johnson, Phillip Hughes and Brad Haddin, will go on to prove themselves to be the equal of their predecessors. But at the moment their names do not strike fear into the hearts of opponents. Cricket is a game played largely in the head and England’s players will feel far more confident facing the bowling of Huritz rather than Warne. It will also be a psychological boost for England to have Andrew Flintoff playing in the series. In 2005 he was England’s hero as his bowling ripped through the Australian batting while he smashed their bowlers round the field with the ball. since then, beset by injuries, he has struggled to recapture the form of that famous summer. But the stage is set for Flintoff to shine once again and recall former glories. Much of England’s success will also depend on the captaincy of Andrew Strauss. He has done a reasonable job with the team so far but perhaps lacks Michael Vaughan’s tactical nous, which was so crucial to England’s series victory last time out. With the likes of Bopara, Pieterson and Anderson in the side, Strauss has a team with the undoubted potential to regain the Ashes. But Ricky Ponting’s men will play with all the tenacity, intensity and sheer skill that has always characterised Australian sides. This year the Ashes contest is on a knife-edge. It promises to be a fascinating summer.
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