- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
At the end of a day’s play during the 1986-87 Ashes series, an Australian player bid farewell for the evening to his teammate Geoff Lawson.
A genial “see you tomorrow” was met by Lawson’s black-humoured rejoinder “yeah, if I don’t commit suicide”.
To lose to England at home is among the heaviest burdens for an Australian cricketer to bear, and that summer remains one of the lowest points for the game in this country, matched only since by eerily similar events in late 2010 culminating at the MCG on Wednesday.
Lawson’s mindset was not helped by his own frustrating road back from injury, but it summed up the state of Australian cricket at the time.
Though ably led by the pugnacious Mike Gatting, the tourists did not look particularly threatening on arrival, and seemed even less so after staggering through their warm-up matches.
Yet on the first day of the series at the Gabba, an inexperienced home attack was unable to exploit a green-tinged pitch and England were away.
“I was 12th man but I should have played,” Lawson recalled in a 2006 interview.
“I’d been injured but the opening bowling attack had a total of nine Tests between them. Really inexperienced.
“I said to the selector, Greg Chappell, `mate, I’m not pushing my own barrow here, but you’ve got it wrong’. We bowled appropriately badly.”
England were 2-198 after rain shortened the opening day, and on the second had lost two wickets without addition when David Gower was dropped in the slips.
Thus reprieved, Gower would build a century stand with Ian Botham, recently returned from a ban for cannabis use.
He went on to a pile-driving 138 that provided the foundation for a seven-wicket victory.
In the words of Allan Border, “the couple of hours that Botham batted was a key moment in the entire series. It went from bad to worse for us and set the tone for the tour.”
England’s 1-0 advantage after the Gabba was maintained by draws in Perth and Adelaide, before the two sides reached Melbourne for the Boxing Day Test.
Promising to take a “more aggressive approach”, Border was pushed too far in that direction by selections who gave him three allrounders, three quicks and only four specialist batsmen.
The Australians were sent in on an MCG pitch with some life, and were swung, bounced and foxed out inside 55 overs for 141.
From there England played sensibly, established a 208-run lead, then enjoyed themselves as their panicked opposition contrived to lose by an innings.
For Border, things were never worse – even Prime Minister Bob Hawke was poking jibes at his team.
“It was probably the lowest point for Australian cricket in my experience,” he said in a 2006 interview.
“I’ll never forget being in the sheds at the MCG when we were drowning our sorrows.
“The tennis player Pat Cash was winning the Davis Cup for Australia on the dressing-room TV.
“Speaking at the tennis, Bob Hawke said `it’s a pity there weren’t more Pat Cashs at the MCG today’.
“There was this stunned silence and I thought a few beer cans would fly at the screen.
“Even the Prime Minister was having a go.
“Later that evening, after a thousand beers, we promised ourselves that it had to stop there and we made a pact that it wouldn’t ever be that bad again.”
The tour was the last time England would run roughshod over Australia for nearly two decades, as Border, coach Bob Simpson and their players built a strong legacy.
“Australia weren’t a poor side, they were an emerging side,” recalled the man of the series, Chris Broad.
“The one thing we took an age to realise, and that Australia had started doing, was to pick players who they thought would be very good and to stick with them and make them better.”
Unfortunately for Border, his pact with teammates has now reached its sunset clause.
Build your own fantasy cricket team and put it to the test with Draftstars daily fantasy competitions. Pick your match, pick your team and watch the points roll in to take out cash prizes on each match. What are you really gambling with? Set a deposit limit.