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The Ghost of Christmas Past for England

Alastair Cook's side has put Ashes success ahead of victory in the short term. (Image: AFP Photo/William West)
Roar Guru
6th January, 2014
0

Normal service has resumed and I can return to the discomfort of being an Englishman in Australia following the thrashing we have just rightfully received at the hands of a rampant and superior Australian cricket team.

But did I really expect any different? Should I have even contemplated that we could win back-to-back Ashes in Australia?

The simple is answer is no! Ashes series in Australia are ‘horses for courses’ affairs and the likelihood of England winning were slim at best.

There has already been much analysis, but in all honesty not much analysis is needed.

What could go wrong for England did go wrong and Australia were the better team in all facets of the game, enough said.

But history also plays a hand and this was always likely to be the tour of the ‘Ghost of Christmas Past’ for England.

Having now lived in Australia since the early 1990s I had become use to England losing – it was akin to accepting we always lose in the FIFA World Cup to countries we have been at war with.

To think we could win this series makes me nothing more than a delusional English fool.

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You only have to cast an eye at the series held in Australia since 1990 – seven series in total including this one, involving 35 Test matches, with only six Test match victories for England, compared 24 for Australia.

In simple terms, six series to one in Australia’s favour.

If you add to that three of England’s Test wins happened in 2010/11, England have only won three other Test matches over a 23 year period.

Putting aside the aberration of 2010/11, when all the stars aligned, modern cricket history tells us we had ‘Buckley’s’ to coin an Australian term.

If you add to that the reality of not winning matches in either Brisbane or Perth, 27 years since we did in Brisbane and 35 years since Perth, then as Private Fraser use to say to Captain Mainwaring in Dad’s Army, “We’re doomed and so we were”.

But can we Brits take any heart from this? Probably not, but it does tell us that 2010/11 was an exceptional and outstanding effort.

Right preparation, right personnel and a team at its peak, but without those three key ingredients modern cricket history tells us your money should have always been on Australia.

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Unfortunately, misplaced patriotism and misguided optimism meant mine wasn’t.

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