PHOENIX RISING

There hasn’t been much to crow about for Ricky Ponting’s band of brothers over the past year, notching up one of the most atrocious test records in living memory, on the back of some forgettable performances by frontline players. But nothing brings out the mongrel in an Aussie cricket team like a home soil Ashes series and an underdog tag. With the coming-of-age of a new generation of stars the likes of Shane Watson, Marcus North, Mitchell Johnson and the Healey-esque Brad Haddin, the Aussies have moved beyond the collosal shadows of the Warne/McGrath/Gilchrist generation, and won’t be taking the widespread media baggings lightly this summer.

It’s been a rocky road for the Aussie crew since that ominous day at Edgbaston in 2005, when Glenn McGrath took a dive over a cricket ball in the nets warming up for the second Test, spraining his ankle. 1-0 up in the Ashes series to that point, and in the wake of Ricky Ponting's optimistic prediction- “we’ve got a good chance of winning 5-0 in this series”, that fateful moment seemingly triggered a downhill landslide for the Australians, sustaining an historical 2-1 loss. An inspirational home-soil cleansweep in 06/07 temporarily broke the trend, but 2009 saw another troubled 2-1 series defeat on English turf, followed by a disastrous 2010 season.

But the Aussie summer is a unique landscape, sporting ballistic beer-fuelled crowds, scorching temperatures likely to wilt even the hardiest Pom, and a host of seamer’s paradise decks, most notably the Gabba and the Adelaide Oval, perfectly tailored to our burgeoning pace-attack. When Dorothy famously quipped, “there’s no place like home…” , she may not necessarily have been commenting on the seething atmosphere of the opening day of an Adelaide Test, but Michael Clarke would no doubt agree with her philosophy, having averaged 102 at that particular home-soil venue, and no doubt will be drooling at the prospect of getting amongst Andrew Strauss’s pacemen in the City of Churches this summer. With Shane Watson, Mitchell Johnson and Mike Hussey finding timely form in the lead-up to this Ashes series, the Aussies have shown a promising glimpse of things to come.

In contrast to the excruciating 2009/10 season endured by the Aussies, the Poms have had a glorious lead-up to this Ashes series, boasting an undefeated record over the past 18 months, a cool and experienced head up-front in Andrew Strauss, and a band of plundered international minds behind-the-scenes in the forms of ex-Aussie coach John Buchanan, Zimbabwean coach Andy Flower and Pakistani spin-doctor Mushtaq Ahmed. But with an ageing roster cluttered with 30-somethings such as Kevin Pietersen (30), Paul Collingwood (34), Graeme Swan (31) and Strauss himself (33), the worm has almost turned on the “Dad’s Army” tag pinned on the Aussies 5 years ago, and the pressure will be squarely on the old heads of the Mother-Country to produce the goods under a sweltering Aussie sun this summer.

Game on!

"In Affectionate Remembrance of ENGLISH CRICKET,

Which died at The Oval on 29th AUGUST, 1882,

Deeply lamented by a large circle of sorrowing friends and acquaintances.

R.I.P.

N.B.—The body will be cremated and the Ashes taken to Australia..."

(Reginald Brooks, The Sporting Times, September 2, 1882;

in the wake of England's crushing defeat at the hands of the Colonials in the inaugural Ashes test.)

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