Australian reputations may go up in Ashes smoke

CRICKET/The Ashes: Richard Gillis on why, after their Ashes defeat last year, for Australia players this series is about more than winning, it is about preserving their legacy

Much of the final day of the deciding Test between England and Australia at the Oval last year took place against a backdrop of silence. Not just the gentle hum of 23,000 people concentrating on the cricket, but complete and utter library quiet.

Cricket is a game usually played in an atmosphere similar to that of a works canteen.

There is a hubbub with the match being part of the occasion, but not all of it. The Oval, particularly, is a noisy ground, an antidote to the pomposity and grandeur of Lords, just a few miles across London to the north.

And because it hosts the final Test of the season, there is an end-of-term atmosphere. People meet up at the Oval, to review another year gone by, or to ponder plans for the winter ahead, all fuelled by bad food and freezing cold, weak lager.

But on this Monday in late September, any such issues were irrelevant. The only reason for being there was to watch England win the Ashes. For an hour or so after the lunch interval, the game was on a knife edge as Kevin Pietersen first survived and then butchered the fastest bowler in the world, Brett Lee.

Every boundary punctured the silence, releasing huge, ecstatic roars from all parts of the ground. Comedians talk of tension as their great ally, the skill of telling a joke being in part about the build up of pressure before the release of the pay off: the greater the tension the bigger the laugh.

Likewise, the sounds of the Oval crowd came from somewhere very deep. It all depended on what happened now, on this day, this session, this ball. The Ashes was in the balance, and English people didn't realise how important they were to them until they were just within their grasp. It was 1986 when Mike Gatting led the last England team to victory against Australia. The Ashes had become a joke, one that was 20 years in the set-up.

Twenty years that have seen careers come and gone. At least two generations of English cricketers have been labelled as under-achievers mainly because of their inability to win against Australia. In the professional lives of English and Australian players the Ashes play a role that is equivalent to that of the Majors in golf. You don't have to be a great player to win a Major, so the cliché goes, but you can't be one if you don't.

Likewise, plenty of journeymen cricketers have won the Ashes down the years, but the term "great" does not easily attach itself to a player who has not been involved in at least one Ashes winning campaign.

History will be kind to the prominent members of the 2005 team: Vaughan, Flintoff, Pietersen and Harmison. Each rose to the challenge at a critical point in the series. But man for man, are they better players than say, Atherton, Stewart, Thorpe and Gough? Will their careers be any more productive to England's cause?

Likewise, the reputation of the great Australian side of the last decade or more has been built on their crushing victories over England, and there is a sense that their loss last year may yet come to define the career of Ricky Ponting, the first Aussie captain to lose the Ashes since '86. Players such as Matthew Hayden, Adam Gilchrist and Damien Martyn had unimpeachable records going in to the 2005 season only to leave it looking like old and beaten men, their aura of invincibility in tatters.

To these players, the series in Australia this winter is about more than winning, it is about preserving their legacy.

Shane Warne was the only Australian to emerge from the skirmish with his reputation enhanced. This takes some doing as he was already labelled the greatest bowler of all time, by the game's bible Wisden, before the series began. The Warne legend grew further because his enormous skill (he took 40 wickets in the series, more than any other player on either side) was allied to a wonderful sense of sportsmanship.

When Pietersen had taken the final game away from Australia on that last afternoon at the Oval, Warne went up to congratulate his Hampshire team-mate.

"I walked up to Kevin Pietersen on 150 and shook his hand and said to him: 'Make sure you remember that and how it feels right now. It was a great knock'," said Warne recently.

"When someone played well and scored a good hundred, we shook hands and clapped. I don't see the big deal in that."

However, some of his fellow Australians have taken issue with Warne on this point and criticised him for being too friendly with the England players, an accusation he rejects saying that the spirit of the occasion went a long way to making it such a fine series.

"When I took my 600th wicket at Old Trafford, Michael Vaughan came up and shook my hand when we were in the middle of our huddle," said Warne. "Andrew Flintoff came over to Brett Lee after we had just lost by two runs and said: 'Well done, it was great, it was courage'."

That such a great player feels the need to justify his role in one of the greatest series ever says something about the Australian sporting psyche.

Aussies who prefer their cricketers to adhere to the steely-eyed, gum-chewing, hard-sledging stereotype as displayed by recent former players such as Steve Waugh and Alan Border.

Interestingly, it was Border who faced similar criticism from the Australian media following his side's defeat by England in 1985, when his relationship with Ian Botham was thought to be too close for comfort, leading to similar accusations as those facing Warne today.

Border responded by toughening up his act, going from laid-back good-time guy to hard-nosed authoritarian.

On his next Ashes tour to England, in 1989, any contact between his team and the English was forbidden. During one match Border responded to a request for refreshment from England batsman Robin Smith with the tirade: "What is this, a f****** tea party? No you can't have a drink of water!"

And most importantly for Australian fans and media, Border started winning, first the World Cup in 1987 and then the Ashes in 1989. The Australians have been winning ever since and Border's ruthless blueprint was set in stone.

Whether Warne takes a similar approach over the next few months will be just one of the many things to watch for in this series.

1986-87: England win 2-1

Mike Gatting led the last England team to win a series in Australia. Gatting's side dominated after a Botham-inspired win in the first Test at Brisbane. The humiliation of being beaten at home led to wholesale changes in the Australian set-up.

1990-91: Australia win 3-0

David Boon scored 530 runs as Australia ran riot against Graham Gooch's brittle bowling attack. Bruce Reid, the tall left armer, took 13 wickets at Melbourne as England slumped, losing six wickets for three runs.

1994-95: Australia win 3-1

Philip DeFreitas' first ball of the series was blasted to the cover boundary by Aussie opener Michael Slater, the rest of the series went downhill from there. one of the oldest England teams to tour Australia was labelled "Dad's Army" by the local media.

1998-99: Australia win 3-1

Even with Shane Warne out injured until the final Test Australia still managed to thrash England. A consolation win in the Melbourne Test and a hat-trick for Darren Gough at Sydney were the tour highlights.

2002-03: Australia win 4-1

Michael Vaughan managed score 633 runs and still get hammered. Simon Jones was carried off in Brisbane and was not seen again in an England shirt for over two years.

First Test: Nov 23-27th, Brisbane (midnight Irish time). Umpires: B Bowden (NZ), S Bucknor (SA).

Second Test: Dec 1-5th, Adelaide (12.30am). Umpires: S Bucknor (WI), R Koertzen (SA).

Third Test: Dec 14-18th, Perth (2.30am). Umpires: A Dar (Pak), R Koertzen (SA).

Fourth Test: Dec 26-30th, Melbourne (11.30pm, Dec 25th). Umpires: A Dar (Pak), R Koertzen (SA).

Fifth Test: Jan 2-5th, Sydney (11.30pm, Jan 1st). Umpires: B Bowden (NZ), A Dar (Pak).

TELEVISION COVERAGE: Sky Sports. Highlights: BBC