The Ashes

England win the Ashes!

Let me start by saying that I am not a huge cricket fan having had it spoon fed from an early age - my Dad loves the game. I can't get too interested in test games - they require patience and dedication. I don't have enough of both.

I quite like the new(ish) 20-20 game. It's fast and has more action - it could well revolutionise the game in general, as the format is not only good to watch, but it's also TV friendly. You can't expect TV companies to set aside 5 days from the schedule for a test game (apart from sports networks perhaps). We'll see how it all develops over the coming years and the Indian Premier League could be the template.

So to the Ashes. It is amazing that a series of games played every couple of years between the same two countries: England and Australia, has so much interest. For those not into cricket, the Ashes is a competition that started in 1882 and is played every 18-30 months - see this wikipedia entry for more information.

To highlight how cricket can be a strange game, here are some stats from this Ashes tour:

Who scored most runs? Australia
Which team had six of the seven leading run makers? Australia
Who took most wickets? Australia
Which team had the three leading wicket-takers? Australia
Who won the series? ENGLAND!!!!

But even if you don't care about the result, there are two very good reasons to watch England... Alastair Cook (right) and Stuart Broad (left), who is very sweet with his (currently) floppy blond hair, but talks complete cricket jargon in interviews to confuse us.


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