by Arthur Crabtree » Thu Jan 01, 2015 5:26 pm
Or, more accurately, countdown to the Ashes of 2005.
It is forbidden to dream. If you do, someone will come along an make you look a fool. Glenn McGrath will tell you that only the weather can can stop Australia from winning 5-0. Jeff Thomson will tell you that the destiny of the Ashes is written in the stars for all time. In 1997, England thought they had a chance, but were made to look ridiculous for hoping. It gets so, the role of England in the contest, is not to hope. Not even to challenge. To fulfil their role as hapless stooges. The Washington Diplomats, to Buchanan's Globetrotters. I bet he even says that.
But really, England haven't won the Ashes for eighteen years. There are people crashing cars who weren't alive when England last won. It has to happen sometime. The nature of the contest is that over 25 days the best side wins. Flukes are unlikely. But, surely it can happen one day.
And this England team is one that ends long sterile runs of failure. Home and away to West Indies. In Pakistan. In Sri Lanka. Hell, we're even 1-0 up in South Africa, and we should have won in Durban after following on. Eight wins in a row, and it should be nine...
If we won just one more Ashes, that would be enough for me. And if it happened now, I wouldn't complain. Can it happen this time? Will we be looking back on this for years to come and gladly reminiscing on turning over the Australia of Warne, Ponting, McGrath and Gilchrist?
I always say that everybody's right.