Misplaced Pages

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Sam Vimes (talk | contribs) at 08:27, 1 November 2005 (catsort). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

This page is about the men's cricket contest. See here for more information on the Women's Ashes series contested the same year.

The 2005 Ashes was that year's edition of the long-standing and storied cricket rivalry between England and Australia. Starting on 21 July 2005, England and Australia played five Tests, with the Ashes held by Australia as the most recent victors. The final result was a 2-1 series win for England, who succeeded (for the first time since 1987) in their biennial attempt to regain the urn.

This series was the most eagerly-anticipated Ashes contest for over a decade. Since 1989, when Australia started their current winning Ashes streak, the contests have been mismatches: Australia were the pre-eminent side in the world, whilst England had dropped from being top-rated in 1981 to 6th for much of the 90s. They reached a low point in 1999 with a series loss to New Zealand leaving them bottom of the Wisden rankings. However, since the previous series in 2002-03, England had drastically improved. Australia was still top-ranked, but England had moved up to second, having won 14 and drawn 3 of their 18 previous test matches since March 2004. Before the first test Australia were perhaps rather braggardly indicating that a 5-0 win in the series was a serious possibility.

By common consent, the series has lived up to the hype: it is already considered a classic, with three of the five matches decided by razor-thin margins under very tense circumstances.

England won the series 2-1, with the other two tests drawn. Australia won the first Test comfortably, but the Second Test saw England level the series with a two run victory that was the narrowest win in Ashes history. The third Test ended in a draw (with England one wicket away from a win), and England narrowly won the fourth Test in Nottingham by three wickets after England enforced the follow on after a poor first innings by Australia.

The fifth and final Test started on 8 September at the Oval in London. It entered its final day evenly balanced with all results still possible and the destination of the urn still in doubt. Australia needed to win to force a 2-2 series draw and retain the Ashes; any other result would give them to England, ending 16 years and eight series of Australian dominance. After a day of fluctuating fortunes, England established an unbeatable lead, and the resulting draw ensured the Ashes were returned to England.

England v Australia 21-25 July 2005 England v Australia 4-8 August 2005 England v Australia 11-15 August 2005 England v Australia 25-29 August 2005 England v Australia 8-12 September 2005

Records

Individual Records

Team Records

Other Records

• Shane Warne became the all time leading wicket taker in The Ashes series having taken a total of 172.
  • He also passed the 600 wicket mark having 623 by the end of the series.
• Glenn McGrath passed the 500 wicket milestone ending up with 518.
• Andrew Flintoff became the first Englishman to claim over 20 wickets and 400 runs (24 wickets and 402 runs) in a series.

Post-Series

Post-match reactions

Immediately following the final match, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II sent a congratulatory memo to Michael Vaughan and the team, saying: "My warmest congratulations to you, the England cricket team and all in the squad for the magnificent achievement of regaining the Ashes... both sides can take credit for giving us all such a wonderfully exciting and entertaining summer of cricket at its best."

Political leaders like Prime Minister Tony Blair, Conservative leader Michael Howard and Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy also sent their congratulations, Blair stating that "By bringing the Ashes back after so long you have given cricket a huge boost and lit up the whole summer".

Howard added "... Vaughan, his team, and all involved, should be proud of this achievement and the manner in which they have played during this extraordinary summer of excitement and tension."

"England's victory is historic, and I send hearty congratulations to the team... It has been impossible not to get caught up by the excitement and sense of good will in the past few days," stated Kennedy.

On the other end of the ledger Australia's Prime Minister, John Howard (who was in New York for a UN summit and was given the bad news by an aide during a luncheon with the Asia Society) was gracious in his congratulations to England.

"Look, there's natural disappointment but it's a situation where you give credit to the team that won," Howard stated, noting that there would not be a national day of mourning. "They will no doubt celebrate and that will be difficult for some, but that's the nature of these contests and we should not take anything away from England...They played very well. It's the best team that England has had for a very long period of time."

QEII press release to Michael Vaughan

England team parade

On Tuesday 13 September, England, along with their Women's Ashes winning counterparts, were feted with a 90-minute bus tour from Mansion House to Trafalgar Square, where they were greeted by tens of thousands of Londoners and cricket fans in a celebration of their momentous achievements (to the surprise of Hoggard, who expected "three men and a dog").

Thousands of people also lined the streets along the parade route as the two buses made their way to Trafalgar Square, as the team soaked up the feteing. While the rest of the team simply enjoyed the sights, 5th test Man-of-the-Match Kevin Pietersen sprayed champagne from the bus onto joyous revelers on the street, while wicketkeeper Geraint Jones held onto a Dalek doll with the words "Australians exterminated" attached to it. (Ironically, Jones learned most of his cricket Down Under!)

At Trafalgar Square, the crowd was treated to a victory celebration for both England teams, and before the ceremony closed the square broke into a rendition of "Jerusalem", which has become an unofficial hymn for the team during the 5th test. Interviews were carried out with all members of the men's team and Clare Connor, the captain of the women's team, by David Gower and Mark Nicholas, while the ceremony was broadcast live in the UK on BBC One, Channel 4 and Sky Sports News and around the world. Afterwards, the side was entertained by the Prime Minister as guests of honour at 10 Downing Street, then returned the urn to its sacred home at Lord's Cricket Ground for safekeeping.

Australian criticism

Almost immediately criticism began in Australia; the Sydney Morning Herald immediately took issue with the fact that not only was captain Ricky Ponting outstrategised by his opposite number Vaughan, but the side in itself was too old and simply did not score the runs when they were needed. The Age of Melbourne criticised the team for opening their big mouths once too often, hitting at Australia's earlier whitewash boast. Psychological warfare, The Age went on to state, is great when it works, but when it backfires those who are responsible ought to be brought to account.

Others were less kind, like former fast bowler Dennis Lillee. Writing in Perth's The West Australian, he stated that all who perpetrated this "disaster" must be sacked, and Shane Warne be appointed the captain in place of Ponting (because of his long series of clutch performances that delivered time and again in this series) Losing to other sides is not the end of the world, stated Lillee, but losing the Ashes is.

Former captain Steve Waugh defended the side, calling it "a very good side, a really experienced side. They will be disappointed but they will move on from it," he said, but also conceding that the selectors were likely to ponder a few changes given that only three of the Australia team at The Oval were aged under 30. "They'll have a couple of players in mind which they will bring in the side over the next couple of years,"

Along with Waugh, selector and former batsman David Boon defended their selections. "Sometimes you're going to have to make a hard decision to keep a subtle rotation going through so you don't have mass retirements...But you've also got to pick the best cricket team you possibly can to represent your country", he stated. "If we keep producing cricketers who are 25 plus, they're mature, they're ready to play, they've still got a seven or eight-year career, then we're doing OK."

Ponting hits back, the axe falls

Ponting was confronted by a large media pack shortly after his arrival at Sydney Airport and said he wasn't aware of Lillee's comments. "I'm not concerned about those things. As long as I am doing the right thing by everyone in my dressing room as the team and the coaching staff, well then that's all I can do... But as long as I am looking after the guys in my dressing room, then I'll be happy," Ponting stated, adding that he wished to remain captain.

Ponting also responded to Lillee's comments that Shane Warne should be captain, and that he made more decisions than Ponting during the series: "I like to talk to a lot of guys out on the field and use their ideas and thoughts. I'll go to Gilly (Adam Gilchrist) and even Matty Hayden, Justin Langer, Damien Martyn... The way I think is not going to be right 100 percent of the time, but that's the way I do it. Warne has got a cricket brain as good as anybody around. But I wouldn't agree ."

Regardless, when the Australian side for the Johnnie Walker ICC Super Series was announced, three members of the Ashes-losing side were dropped: Damien Martyn was retained only for the ODI squad, while Jason Gillespie and Michael Kasprowicz were dropped altogether. Brad Hodge, Stuart MacGill and Shane Watson were added in their places. While Cricket Australia officials have assured that these omissions are not a signal that the Test careers of these three players are over, many experts say otherwise. Lillee once again called for the replacement of Ponting as captain with Warne after the squad announcement, however this was once again rejected.

England's epilogue

With England's victory in the series, the top of the ICC Test Championship rankings ladder changed slightly as the English closed in on the top-ranked Aussies. However, in a BBC interview the week after the series, Simon Jones claimed that the English should be regarded as the best, despite statistics and the Test Championship rankings speaking otherwise.

"The Ashes series was talked about so much. People were wondering if England could do it and Glenn McGrath said Australia would win 5-0, but we beat them 2-1 and could have been 3-1 up after Old Trafford." Jones told the BBC. "Australia are statistically the best side in the world, and rightly so. They've played so much great cricket over the past 10 years and built up an advantage on the points system...But I think that's changing and hopefully we will have the mantle one day."

Meanwhile, Pakistan and India are now preparing for the Ashes keepers' visit late in 2005, with the Pakistanis relishing the opportunity to test their mettle against the side that took down the Australians. "England have done well but they have still to create that aura of invincibility of the West Indies of the 1970s and 80s and Australia recently." Pakistan coach Bob Woolmer stated, "The side which does well in all three departments will win the series and we have to be very disciplined against England, who have quality batsmen and bowlers."

Following their performances in the series both Andrew Flintoff and Michael Vaughan were given the Freedom of the City in their hometowns of Preston and Sheffield.

On 29 September, the Royal Mail issued a set of four stamps commemorating the Ashes victory. The stamps cost 68p — which is, incidentally, the cost of sending first-class mail to Australia.

References

• 1999 New Zealand Tour Article
• Principal Test Cricket Records
• Cricinfo
• The Times
• The Sun
• The Greatest Series DVD

External links

• BBC Cricket
• Ashes 2005 - 334notout
• Yahoo! Sport Australia/New Zealand
• Yahoo! Sport UK/Ireland
• Wisden Cricinfo

• 2005 English cricket season
• The Ashes