County cricket clubs are falling over themselves to get Australians ready for the Ashes. Good for the game, or a sure way of derailing a return to the glory days of 2005? Former England bowler, Angus Fraser, and Independent cricket correspondent, Stephen Brenkley, join the debate.
Angus Fraser: I want the series to leave a similar mark on the game as the 2005 encounter, and if that is to be the case we need two well prepared and evenly matched sides lining up against each other in Cardiff on 8 July. Indeed, if the ECB were so worried about the first Test why is it being played in Cardiff, a virgin Test arena and therefore a ground where Strauss' side will feel as unfamiliar as the opposition? There is the small matter of the Twenty20 World Cup, too. The Indian board did not seem too worried about England's top players gaining valuable experience in the IPL before the tournament.
Stephen Brenkley: All the trouble started in 1988. All the present row confirms is the inability to learn from history. That year, the captain of Australia, Allan Border, returned to Essex. Part of the reason may have been that he was pining for the architecture of Harlow and was desperate to win the Refuge Assurance League. But he had other business. Border spent the summer not only scoring runs, but gathering information, on pitches, on players, on the thought processes in English cricket.
It was sporting espionage of the highest order. The following summer, with Border leading, hard-nosed and uncompromising, Australia regained the Ashes in a series they had been confidently tipped to lose. Things were never the same again.
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