“The Test” (2018–2023) From Cheats to Champions
…and a little homework ahead of this year’s Ashes
From “Sandpapergate” and the ball tampering scandal of March 2018 to becoming Champions of the World and retaining the Ashes in the summer of 2023, I’ve held a lifelong affinity for the Australian cricket team which isn’t an admission you’ll find coming easily from an English “Pom” and fan of the England cricket team but then again, I’m a contrarian connoisseur of the grand old game of Test Match cricket, no ordinary cricket fan, and why I found “The Test: A new era for Australia’s team” such an insightful and enthralling watch. My earliest memories of watching cricket revolve around my parents love for the game: watching with my Dad as Ian Botham almost single-handedly beat the visiting Aussies in 1981 and dismantling their castle before Bob Willis blew their house of cards down and when Imran Khan’s biggest fan departed for a forever game of cricket in another universe, watching cricket with my Mum as she barely missed a ball of a game she held higher in her affections than even football, Manchester United or the unfeasibly handsome Cristiano Ronaldo.
Cricket is in my blood. Summers were spent carrying a bat and ball around in search of a game in the neighbourhood (or I practiced alone in my own little universe with a tennis ball and a set of stumps drawn on a wall) before graduating to games for the school, then the city, playing in adult teams when still a school-age “colt”, to Saturday and Sunday league games (Wednesday nights for the works team) and when not playing: watching any and everything relayed on terrestrial television and sneaking into every Hampshire game played in my home city of Portsmouth. Then along came the advent of cable and satellite television, even more games were open to me and from 1987 onward, a new and strange obsession for Test Match cricket was born: watching and listening to the grand old game through the night. Oh for the secretive and almost illicit world of listening to “Test Match Special” as grainy, almost subliminal coverage is relayed from the other side of the world at 4am huddled beneath the bed covers and hoping not to alarm or awaken my Mum! The “can’t bat, can’t bowl, can’t field” 1987 England team who ventured down under and returned triumphantly with the Ashes urn, the first tours of the West Indies I could watch live through the night of the early 1990’s when I should have been preparing for work, watching Kiwi Danny Morrison frustrate the England bowlers for an otherworldly and unexpected draw as I passed my girlfriend on the stairs at 7am to go to bed as she departed for work or ringing in work sick at 7.30am after watching England through the night of another Ashes defeat down under but…also after watching Darren Gough’s incredible hat-trick at the Sydney Cricket Ground. It mattered not a jot when Australia routinely demolished England down under (4–1 in 2002/2003, 5–0 in 2006/2007 AND 2013/2014 or 4–0 in 2017/2018) because I was watching Test Match cricket through the night in my own little Christmas and New Year world, from bitterly cold pitch black darkness outside to the searing sunshine of Sydney or the Boxing Day Test at the magnificent Melbourne Cricket Ground. I was in my element. I always am when watching cricket through the night, and I can’t wait for the year-ending Ashes that straddle 2025 into a new year of 2026, but that’s getting ahead of ourselves.
"Ashes to Ashes" - link to Amazon
Returning to 2020 and the release of Season 1 of “The Test: A new era for Australia’s team”, this opening season of 8 episodes begins with the infamous “Sandpapergate” of March 2018 when Aussie legends David Warner and Steve Smith, as well as relative newcomer to the team Cameron Bancroft, all admitted their guilt in tampering with the ball on their tour of South Africa that saw each player banned from the game for a year and the immediate departure too of their head coach, Darren Lehmann. With Australia now in desperate need of both a new coach and a new captain, in stepped former player Justin Langer as coach, Tim Paine as captain, and a new ethos for a new Australia cricket team was born from the necessity to recover from the cheating scandal and rediscover a respect for the grand old game whilst earning back the respect of the Australian public and the wider cricketing world. Season 1 is the largest of the 3 Seasons to date covering the 18 months between the controversy in South Africa, the building of a new team, the eventual reintegration of Warner, Smith and to a lesser degree Bancroft back into the Test team, and after tours to Pakistan (played in the United Arab Emirates), a tour defeat in India and a win in Sri Lanka as the country was turned upside down due to the overthrowing of their Government, a reinvigorated Australia lose to England in the semi-finals of the 2019 World Cup before a 2–2 draw in the Ashes series sees Tim Paine and his team retain the Ashes urn. A remarkable turnaround for a team in turmoil just 18 months prior and all under the guidance of a coach and captain who’d lead the team to the 2021–2022 Ashes series on home turf before each departing mere weeks either side of their eventual and thoroughly dominant 4–0 triumph.
The documentary series only heightened my respect for the man and the cricketer that was Tim Paine, my distaste for his coach Justin Langer (although he will always be a legendary player and a joy to watch in his playing days, he doesn’t come across well in Season 1 before becoming virtually anonymous in Season 2) and oh for the memories of the Ashes summer of 2019! Busy working throughout the series, I barely watched a ball bowled that summer as I drove my taxi around the county but…I listened to every ball of every day on the forever beautiful radio institution that is “Test Match Special”. Two Sunday’s will be ingrained in my memory for all time, Ben Stokes innings and the “Miracle of Headingley” that kept the Ashes alive until the final Test Match and a two hour each-way journey and single job with a single passenger on a gloriously sunny Sunday afternoon when, reaching our destination, my elderly lady passenger thanked me for arriving safely at her daughter’s and for the joy of listening to the cricket for the entire journey. “I’ve been reminded of my childhood the whole way, thank you” she said. Thanking me! For listening to the cricket!
A true story and the power of the grand old game ladies and gentlemen.
"The Spirit of Cricket" - link to Amazon
Season 2 and 4 episodes covering the continued renaissance of the Australian cricket team despite yet another scandal, this time surrounding soon to be ex captain Tim Paine, a contract dispute (and loss of the dressing room) spells the end of Justin Langer as head coach, and both of these human stories bookend a 4–0 demolition of Joe Root’s England in the Ashes covered in my first book, Ashes to Ashes. There’s also a disappointing drawn series with Sri Lanka and a first overseas tour for 24 years to play in the country of Pakistan amid the soul destroying bubbles of Covid.
The weakest of the 3 Seasons to date, but another reason to plug my first self-published book on cricket! Each and every day of every Test Match is covered as I predict a 5–0 whitewashing (only a stoic draw in Sydney saves England from this humiliation) and a new folk hero is born in both Australia and here in middle England as we all take Scott Boland to our hearts despite him ripping England to shreds in the Boxing Day Test Match.
"Tea and Biscuits in India" - link to Amazon
Despite being the shortest Season to date (3 episodes) Season 3 is by far the best of the trio, covering Australia’s tour of England in 2023 and as covered in depth in my The Spirit of Cricket book, their triumphant ascendency to World Test Champions with a comprehensive victory over India before a 2–2 drawn Test series with England ensures they retained the Ashes urn. As I argue in the book, Australia were good value for their 2–0 lead after nail biting victories at Edgbaston and Lords, but still a tad fortunate to leave English shores with a 2–2 series draw after defeats at Headingley and The Oval and in the fourth Test Match, only saved from defeat by the incessant rain from a dark Sunday in Manchester. Had the rain not saved them, England were overwhelming favourites to win in Manchester and the teams would’ve headed to London and The Oval all square at 2–2 for a series decider.
Alas, it was not to be, and Australia will be the holders of the Ashes come November 2025 and yet another eagerly awaited series for this English madman watching every ball “through the night”.
"Rasputin and Raspberry Jam" - link to Amazon
So there we have it. Just an excuse to let my dancing fingers float across a keyboard, talk about my dear old Mum and Dad, and of course, present to you dear reader four of my favourite self-published books. “The Test: A new era for Australia’s team” isn’t purely about the cricket (far from it in fact, much like my books…) and like my books again, more of a human story behind the sport on the field of play. We see and meet the families, parents, partners and children that inspire the men who all grew up dreaming of playing Test Match cricket and if you’re reading this and like me dreamed of doing likewise (or any sport you care to mention) you may well see the similarities in your childhood and upbringing as well as the human story on show, if not the turning of cricketing cheats into champions.
Thanks for reading.
Peace.
