Robert Craddock’s 25 best Ashes cricketers since World Series split
FORTY years ago, many of Australia’s finest players joined Kerry Packer’s World Series Cricket. Robert Craddock marks the anniversary of the great divide with his best Ashes 25.
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IT’S 40 years since the cricket world split at the seams.
This summer is the 40th anniversary of the season when many of Australia’s finest players, the Chappells and Dennis Lillee among them, paraded their wares for Kerry Packer’s World Series Cricket for the first time.
The messy split occurred just after the 1977 Ashes tour which England won 3-0.
To mark the occasion we’ve chosen the best 25 Ashes players from both nations in the 40 years since the earth shook.
With apologies to narrow omissions including Justin Langer, Andrew Strauss, Geoff Lawson, Ryan Harris, Craig McDermott, Chris Broad, Jason Gillespie, Bruce Reid, Matt Hayden, Jimmy Anderson and Mike Hussey please raise your glass for …
1. Shane Warne: Announced himself to England with the “Ball of the Century,’’ his first Test delivery to England in 1993, and it was as if he was casting a magical spell that mesmerised England for more than a decade.
Even when Australia were shock losers in 2005 he was still a rampaging force with 40 Test wickets. When former English captain Alec Stewart was asked which Australian he would have liked to have in his team he said the obvious. “Warne ... easily.’’
2. Ian Botham: Truly an Ashes colossus. Had his quiet times and many would be surprised his Test batting average against Australia was just over 29 but his big moments were earth-quakers.
Two roaring centuries at Headingly and Old Trafford enabled England to storm from the canvas in the 1981 Ashes, his bold century in Brisbane in 1986-87 was a true series shaper and that is apart from his 148 Ashes wickets at 27. A freak.
3. Glenn McGrath: Cold, calculating and relentless, he simply wiped out a generation of England batsmen with pinpoint seam. Mike Atherton was a 19-time victim in McGrath’s 157-wicket Ashes tally. His importance was illustrated by his absence when he went down injured on the 2005 Ashes tour and Australia’s hopes went with him.
4. Allan Border: Played a stunning 47 Ashes Tests and was the man who saw it all, from the harrowing losses of the 1981 tour of England, the indignant losses to Mike Gatting’s men in the mid-1980s and the glorious resurgence of the late 1980s and early 1990s when his once faltering rule was as commanding as Rommel in the desert. Through the extreme peaks and troughs of his team he was always the wicket that mattered with eight Ashes tons giving him an average of 56 against his favourite foe.
5. Steve Waugh: With those beady eyes and that gunslinger’s glare, he tormented fractured English teams like a wicked puppeteer, with ruthless stroke play, subtle sledges and an insatiable appetite for revenge for the days when he was a plodding youngster taking 27 Tests to score his first century. Made 10 Ashes tons.
6. Adam Gilchrist: Biff. Bang. Whack. Just the sight of Gilchrist’s jaunty walk to the crease made England nervous from the moment he took 153 off 143 balls off them the first time they saw him at Edgbaston in 2001. The one low point was the 2005 Ashes, which Gilchrist considers the worst period of his career, but a 59-ball ton against England in Perth the following year was sweet payback.
7. Bob Willis: Great Ashes warrior. Tall with a brooding, intense almost pained demeanour he pounced on a stunned Australia after an Ian Botham batting blitz had seized momentum to take 8-43 at Headingley in 1981 for a famous win, part of his 128-wicket Ashes haul in a distinguished career.
8. Terry Alderman: Alderman and England are Ashes cricket’s milk and honey. Those wicked, wobbly medium paced drifters that floated like soap suds so tormented Graham Gooch he asked to be dropped.
Took 42 wickets in England in 1981 and 41 eight years later and reckons he would have taken 50 on both tours if the DRS was in play. A frightening thought.
9. David Gower: Scored nine Ashes tons and his best moments were memorable; 102 in his second Test in Perth and three massive centuries as captain in the 1985 Ashes series win among them. But he also was caught in the crossfire of a horrendous series loss to Australia in 1989 when Geoff Lawson asked him why he was drinking a glass of champagne at lunch and he said “I’m celebrating our (one) wicket in the session.’’
10. Michael Vaughan: When Australia were thumping the world he swam against the king tide to make 177 at Adelaide, 145 at Melbourne and 183 at Sydney in 2002-03. Averaged 47 in Ashes cricket compared to 41 overal and led England to their epic 2005 triumph with subtle man management that gave England the one quality they so needed — self-belief.
11: Dennis Lillee: The master of the masters, as Ian Botham rightfully anointed him, only gets marked down because the post-Packer period was the final third of his Test career.
Almost snapped the leash to feast upon England in three home Tests after the Packer war ended and his 39-wicket Ashes haul in 1981 came despite the trauma of Botham-inflicted wounds.
12. Mark Taylor: Became a memorable tide-turner in Ashes momentum with a monstrous series in the famed 1989 series when he never scored less than 27 and slapped down 136 in the first Test and 219 at Trent Bridge. Started every Ashes series in England with a century. A London tabloid once handed him an ultra-wide bat as a prank when the runs dried up but he generally won the war with England.
13. Mark Waugh: Didn’t play an Ashes Test until he was 25 but scored a freewheeling 138 on debut against England in Adelaide then told teammates “I should have played years ago.’’ This sort of vibe set a new upbeat tone for Australian batting. He won all six Ashes series he contested and averaged 50.
14. Michael Slater: After a confidence sapping 1980s he was a poster boy for Australia’s up-and-at-‘em 1990s with a rousing 152 at Lord’s in 1993 in his first series, famously cutting the first ball of the next Ashes series for four a year later on the way to 176.
15. Andrew Flintoff: Had his sorrowful moments such as a 5-0 drubbing when he wobbled under the pressure of captaincy (and the occasional big-drinking night out) in Australia in 2006-07 but was a tide-turner of the highest order when it mattered in the famous 2005 series with 24 wickets, a century and three 50s, snapping Australia’s 16-year Ashes domination.
16. Alastair Cook: Has to sneak in here on his Everest-climbing 766 runs in Australia in 2010-11 including an epic 235 not out at the Gabba. Has run white hot, Alaskan cold and all temperatures between in a decade of Ashes combat but a collective average of just under 40 against them says England would be lost without him in an era in which they have raised the urn four times.
17. Stuart Broad: Combative and indomitable, his best moments have been dam-busters like his 8-15 at Trent Bridge on the last Ashes tour or his crucial 5-37 in the last Test at The Oval in 2009.
Even when things were running badly against England in Australia he would power against the tide. Outstanding player.
18. Ian Healy: Won all six series he contested against England and his glue-fingered work to Warne, combative demeanour and bustling presence at the crease made him a bright spark in a memorable era.
Relished the vibe on his three Ashes tours and was a key (often cheeky) voice in convincing a team who had wobbled through a challenging 1980s that better times lay ahead.
19. Greg Chappell: Lost the Ashes in 1977 but won them back in 1982-83 with a powerful personal series. Scored nine Ashes centuries and had some epic contests with the likes of Botham, Underwood and Willis.
20. Kevin Pietersen: Quirky, complex but always threatening, he was a hard man to stop in his first Ashes series in 2005 when his 158 on the last day of the series delivered the long craved for Ashes series win. His 490 runs at 54 when England lost 5-0 in 2006-07 was also an honourable effort and four years later his double century in Adelaide epitomised his strong will and class.
21. Ricky Ponting: Had a turbulent time of it in the Ashes, from the highs of a century in his first Ashes innings at Headingley to twin centuries in 2002-03 to an epic match saving ton at Old Trafford in 2005 and a 5-0 romp as skipper in 2005-06. There were plenty of gold studs but he also lost two series in England and another in Australia at a time when Australia weren’t used to the pain of losing the Ashes.
22. Mitchell Johnson: England saw the blistering best and the mercurial worst of him but his finest work was among the most hostile the game has seen. It was estimated more than 20 English players, coaches and backroom staff lost their jobs as a consequence of his hellraising 37-wicket Ashes summer (at 14 runs apiece) in 2013-14 which ransacked England in way that not even Lillee and Thomson had managed.
23. Merv Hughes: He saw the bottom of the barrel when hammered by Botham in 1985 and the Everest peak of 1989 when his hustle and chirp bruised England physically and mentally.
A wonderful 31-wicket series in England in 1993 when hobbling on a bad knee was a brave high point in an underrated career. His bushranger’s scowl rattled the Poms and got wickets for teammates.
24. Rodney Hogg: Fiery eyed and hot blooded, Hogg came from nowhere to storm to prominence with an incredible 41-wicket Ashes series on debut in 1978-79 in a weak team crippled by defections to World Series. He later took 11 wickets in three Tests against England in 1982-83 as Australia retained the Ashes, leaving him with 56 Ashes wickets at a frugal 17 apiece.
25. Mike Gatting: Just pips Justin Langer for the last place for his Churchillian leadership during England’s famous series win in Australia in 1986 when he harnessed the talents of a group of strong willed individuals into an unstoppable force. Had fun along the way.
Originally published as Robert Craddock’s 25 best Ashes cricketers since World Series split