Simon Wilde, in the Times, reminds readers of a certain 5-0 whitewash which has been forgotten by the British media in the run up to the Ashes. The 'series in between' has been conveniently airbrushed from memory, Wilde says.
The whole country seems determined to hark back to 2005. Maybe it's in our genes, the same genes that encouraged Lord Nelson to put the telescope to his blind eye so that he could ignore an order to retreat at the Battle of Copenhagen. Except Nelson had a strategy. This is just ignoring inconvenient truths.
Sitting in one of his favourite pubs, The Victoria near Richmond Park in south-west London, Bob Willis tells Brian Viner of the Independent why he feels England cannot win the Ashes this summer - because the Australian batting is too strong. Willis also reminisces his favourite Ashes memories, including 'that' match at Headingley in 1981.
We all know what happened on the pitch, of course, but what about afterwards? "Oh, Brears, Beefy and myself were dragged off to a press conference, and by the time we got back to the dressing-room everyone else had gone. They were going all over the country for Natwest Trophy second-round fixtures the next day. So Beefy and I had a pint together, and that was it. It wasn't until I was driving home and it was the lead story on [the Radio 4 news programme] PM, that the penny dropped as to what we had actually achieved."
Genuine swing bowling has always been instrumental in Ashes success through the years, with Bob Massie and Terry Alderman being just a few examples. Can it be the turn of England's James Anderson this time around? Simon Hughes has the answer in the Telegraph.
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