Don Bradman was the subject of the first adult book I recall reading as a youngster. In the mind of a young pupil, the injustice of an England's skipper ordering his teammates to target a brilliant Australian was hard to grasp. And so, like many, I developed a dislike for England.
Excitement about the Ashes? It goes without saying. The sport's schedule makes this a special occasion to watch two of the world’s best teams challenge and provoke each other over what we hope will be 25 days of interrogation with the traditional red ball.
As the celebrated all-rounder reminded us last week at the announcement of the ticket draw for the 150th anniversary Test, the Ashes has a special charm. “Traditionally, fans globally watches the Ashes,” he said. “It's about heritage, it’s the competition, it's always full throttle.”
In England, those two recent drawn series – marked by Smith's prolific scoring and Ben Stokes’ Headingley masterpiece in 2019, and the Lord’s Long Room disgrace of 2023 – have met the expectations of what an Ashes contest should be. Yet, they have not had the equivalent resonance on the other side of the world when half of Australia falls asleep before the afternoon session begins.
On Australian soil, the Ashes has been less flat out than just flat for more than a decade. Fans down under anticipate their team to dominate easily, as it has been since the 1990s. Boland's stunning figures at the MCG wasn’t born from a fierce duel, it was a comical English collapse confirming a worldview. A genuine contest should not be so one-sided.
England's squad were greeted upon arrival by a tired headline in the city's paper, “Bazball”, supported by a portrayal of the widely respected Ben Stokes as “cocky”. The paper then had a go at “Average Joe” Root, aka “Flop Root in Australia”. It was enough to prompt a predictable Fleet Street reaction, enabling the press to extract every last drop in the lead-up before the series begins.
On the other hand, the previous Border-Gavaskar Trophy between Australia and India sparked something on its own. The spiritual peak was that MCG experience, a moment that will linger forever. The numbers, also, overwhelmed. Over 800,000 attended the five Tests, the fourth highest for any contest in Australia and the highest for any non-Ashes contest. Audiences were entranced, not unlike the TV bump for India’s tour of England this year, and eight sessions drew more than two million TV fans.
Lately, the touching send-offs of two Indian legends at the SCG made ODI matches actually mean something. Compare the headline following the previous occasion England visited for a limited-overs series: “Smallest attendance for an ODI match raises fears for ODI cricket's survival”.
Although rain ruined the T20 series with India, the action that occurred suggests Australia are lagging behind the T20 international standards. For the women's game, at the World Cup last month, the host nation knocked off the title holders. The all-format contest starting in Sydney is primed as a unofficial world title decider.
One might to overlook the colorful fan groups that gather at India’s matches – across all formats – as a mere result of the vast diaspora of the world’s most populous nation. However, to financial analysts and broadcast bosses, they are an boon.
India now means more to Australia than its historical roots, given the countries share an ocean, shared colonial history, and growing cultural ties. India will likely surpass the UK, according to ABS migration data, as the source of the biggest contingent of immigrants as early as this year. The struggling defence pact is prompting a recalibration of defence interests acknowledging the growing influence of regional giants, a shift that occurred years back in the sport of cricket.
Greg Chappell, who also coached India, noted last week that England was “our biggest traditional rival”, but also that “to be fair, if not for India, the sport would suffer”.
Until Australia claimed the trophy last summer, India had retained it for ten years. In India, Australia haven’t won in over two decades. Even if the hosts reclaim the Ashes easily this summer, losing the five-Test Border-Gavaskar Trophy in India in early 2027 would make this period incomplete.
That elusive victory on the Indian soil remains the final proving ground for this generation, and a setback against England this summer – attributed to an untimely injury, similar to 2005 and Glenn McGrath’s freak rolled ankle – would only fuel the story.
England have not won an Ashes Test in Australia for almost 15 years, and as rich as the lore may be, it cannot sustain a one-sided contest indefinitely. So, with a vibrant Indian team having recently departed, Ben Stokes’s players have a lot at stake. Win the series and stay relevant. Or surrender the trophy and with it an irreplaceable asset: the right to Australia’s greatest rivalry. We beg the English, just be good.
A geospatial analyst with over a decade of experience in terrain modeling and environmental data visualization.
