🔗 Share this article

The legendary Australian batsman was the focus of the initial serious read I remember reading as a child. To a primary school student, the unfairness of an England's skipper ordering his countrymen to hurt a talented Aussie was unfathomable. Thus, like many, I came to hate England.

Excitement about the Ashes? That's a given. Cricket’s calendar makes this a special occasion to watch two of the top cricketing nations test and taunt and tease each other over what we anticipate will be five Tests of interrogation with the red Kookaburra.

According to the celebrated all-rounder pointed out last week at the launch of the ballot for the 150th anniversary Test, the Ashes has a unique appeal. “Historically, everyone in the cricketing world tunes into the Ashes,” he remarked. “It's about heritage, the rivalry, you know that’s it all flat out.”

Across the UK, those two tightly fought contests – marked by Steve Smith’s mountain of runs and Stokes' heroic innings in 2019, and the controversial Long Room incident of 2023 – have lived up to the hype of what an Ashes contest should be. However, they have not had the same cultural impact on the Australian shores when half of Australia falls asleep before the afternoon session begins.

In home Tests, the Ashes has been less flat out than just flat for over ten years. Fans down under anticipate their team to win and win handily, as it has been since the nineties. Boland's stunning figures at the MCG wasn’t wrought in a furnace of competition, it was a comical English collapse confirming a worldview. A genuine contest should not be this way.

Cricket’s Town Criers Must Now Crouch Down at the Fading Glow and Fan the Flames

The English team were greeted upon arrival by a predictable front page in the local tabloid, “Baz Bawl”, supported by a portrayal of the widely respected Ben Stokes as “arrogant”. The publication then had a dig at “Mediocre” Root, also known as “Flop Root in Australia”. This sufficed to elicit a predictable Fleet Street reaction, enabling the media to squeeze what juice is left in the days before the first ball is bowled.

In contrast, the previous Border-Gavaskar Trophy between Australia and India ignited excitement on its own. The spiritual peak was that MCG experience, a moment that will linger forever. The numbers, too, impressed. Over 800,000 attended the five Tests, the fourth highest for any contest in Australia and the top for any non-Ashes contest. Audiences were entranced, similar to the ratings surge for India's UK visit this year, and multiple periods drew more than two million TV fans.

Lately, the emotional if unofficial farewells of two Indian legends at the Sydney Cricket Ground made one-day cricket actually mean something. Contrast the headline following the previous occasion England visited for a white ball tour: “Smallest attendance for an ODI match raises fears for ODI cricket's survival”.

India’s Rising Influence

Although bad weather disrupted the short-format games with India, what play we saw indicates Australia are lagging behind the short form’s global benchmark. For the women's game, at the World Cup last month, the host nation knocked off the defending champions. The multi-format series kicking off in February-March is primed as a unofficial world title decider.

One might to dismiss the colorful fan groups that flock to 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 television executives, they are an boon.

The world’s largest democracy now means more to Australia than its historical roots, given the countries share an sea, shared colonial history, and growing cultural ties. India will likely surpass the UK, per ABS migration data, as the source of the largest group of foreign-born Australian residents as soon. The struggling defence pact is prompting a realignment of defence interests acknowledging the rising power of regional giants, a change that occurred years back in the cricketing world.

Greg Chappell, who also led the Indian team, noted last week that England was “the classic foe”, but added “honestly, without India, cricket wouldn’t be the same”.

The Ultimate Test

Before Australia won the Border-Gavaskar Trophy last summer, India had retained it for ten years. In India, Australia haven’t won in over two decades. Even if the home side win back the urn comfortably this summer, failing to secure the multi-match series in India in the coming years would make this period incomplete.

That elusive victory on the Indian soil remains the ultimate test for today's players, and a blip against England this summer – put down to unfortunate bowler injury, similar to past incidents – would only add to the narrative.

The tourists have not secured a victory in Australia for almost 15 years, and despite the history, it won't support a lopsided rivalry indefinitely. So, with a vibrant Indian team having only just flown out, Ben Stokes’s players have a lot at stake. Triumph in the Ashes and remain significant. Or surrender the trophy and with it something that can’t be won back: the claim to Australia’s greatest rivalry. Please England, just be good.