Ashes fever returns (From Gazette)

Ashes fever returns

10:19am Wednesday 8th July 2009

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With the exception of Twenty20, cricket very rarely rules the heart and mind of our nation these days.

The desperation to find out what the score is, who took the wickets, and who fell off a pedalo the night before.

However, with the Ashes comes a very good reason to switch off from the rest of the world, from the rest of life, and engross oneself in what could be one of sport’s most engaging clashes.

Or, with England involved, a big, fat anti-climax, like the last series between the two sides in Australia when England were beaten 5-0.

The insania produced by the previous occasion England won, in 2005, was known as Ashes Fever.

Kids dragged themselves away from their Playstations to play in the streets, sales of bats and equipment rocketed and the England squad was honoured — even Paul Collingwood, whose minor role in proceedings was frequently reminded to him by Aussie legend Shane Warne.

But will we see similar scenes of cricketing overdose this time around?

The office didgeridoo has already been given a fresh oiling ready for a few lunchtime overs down the corridor.

And fielding practice went awry when a member of the features department attempted to return a ball to the sportsdesk, only to unwittingly deliver a blow to the head of a fully concentrated sub-editor. Risk of haemorrage was reduced by the fact the ball was made of sponge.

When Essex captain Mark Pettini was a mere youth, such was his enthusiasm for the game he couldn’t hang on until break time at school to start up his own version of the sport.

Sat in music class, rubber and ruler were utilised as bat and ball — until Pettini, showing panache at an early age for striking a ball hard — smashed the fire alarm with an outrageous cover drive.

The whole school was evacuated.

No doubt hundreds of thousands of other workers, students and maybe even the elderly will experience some type of Ashes related incident over the next couple of months.

The most important aspect of the Ashes is what actually happens on the pitch. Plenty has been said — mostly by the Australians —about who is going to win.

But the fact is, this Ashes series is going to be a tough one to call.

It would be easy to sit back and say Australia are number one in the world and will subsequently breeze past an England team which still blows hot and cold with frustrating regularity.

Instead, it is worth taking note of England possessing a batsman every bit as good as Ricky Ponting, in the form of Kevin Pietersen.

And a bowling attack which, on its day, can match that of Australia, a nation unable to produce a spin bowler post-Warne.

An added incentive to jump on the Ashes bandwagon is Essex pair Alastair Cook and Ravi Bopara.

The Australians — Warne in particular — have tried picking on Bopara in recent weeks, saying he isn’t as good as people/he thinks he is. There is little doubt he will prove them wrong.

When he does, England will be walking away with the Ashes following a 2-1 victory.

Back to batting with a didgeridoo.

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