In the countdown to the Ashes, former England captain Mike Brearley looks back at the 1981 series without some element of rosy tint to the glasses. He writes in the Observer:
Through lenses of nostalgia and historical determinism, we easily feel that things could not have been different. Yet how many times did Botham play and miss on what was a horrible pitch for batting, or carve the ball over the slips? What if Rod Marsh had got an eighth of an inch more bat on the hook that Graham Dilley caught a yard inside the fine-leg boundary on that last afternoon, or Mike Gatting and Botham himself not held excellent catches an inch or two off the ground in the over before lunch on the same day? Yet in retrospect it is tempting to see the chain of events as not only inevitable but morally appropriate. We were bound to win; we won because we deserved to, and we deserved to because of some ineffable quality or spirit lacking in other teams at other times.
In the same paper, Barney Ronay looks at the ten best moments from Ashes series.
1983, DRAMA IN THE SLIPS
One of the great dramatic finishes. Chasing 292 to win in the fourth Test at Melbourne in the 1982-83 series Australia were 255 for nine overnight. On the final morning 10,000 people came in for free as the last-wicket pair, Jeff Thomson and Allan Border, nurdled them ever closer. With just three runs required the younger‑model Ian Botham returned to the attack. Botham's away swing drew an edge from Thomson. Chris Tavare at slip parried it. And Geoff Miller grabbed it sensationally on the rebound. England had kept the series alive, but Aussie TV was on a commercial break.
In the Sunday Times former Australian opener Justin Langer talks to Martin Johnson about facing the first ball of the previous two series and his predictions on the upcoming one.
“That first ball flew past me and when Geraint Jones took it above his head, I looked around to see the England players all over us, in our faces, like bees to a honeypot,” said Langer. Harmison’s next delivery hit Langer on the elbow and, after initially giving the bowler an “is that all you’ve got, sonny?” stare, Langer couldn’t bluff it out and had to call for the painkilling spray.
“The England boys were buzzing even more,” said Langer. “It felt more like the rugby World Cup than a cricket match and when I was getting treatment from the physio I said to Matty Hayden, ‘Jeez, mate, it looks like these guys really mean business’.
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