The season for cricket: False hope but a brighter future?

The first and last months of the Calendar year, December and January, are often the most depressing times for individuals, apart from the festive period, it could be argued. More so in 2021, with the population enduring an agonizing, and often tiresome, threat of a global pandemic, the omnipresence of a new variant Omicron as well as ongoing political scandal. However, an early Christmas gift was given to cricket lovers worldwide; The Ashes.

In its simplest form, The Ashes is a series of five cricket matches played between two countries, England and Australia. Each match is scheduled for five days’ play and determines who will regain the urn which holds the ashes of ‘the death of English cricket’. However, there is nothing ‘simple’ about The Ashes. With The Ashes being played twice over a four-year period, once in the English Summer and once in the Australian Summer, cricket fans are never short of excitement in the build up to, and throughout, this historic sporting rivalry.

With the series being in Australia on this occasion, and with the obvious time difference, many of the matches would start at midnight or 04:00, and would last eight hours from start to close each day, so English fans would undertake many late nights, or early starts. To the non-cricket fan, this might sound like a complete waste of time and energy, but these fans are committed to the cause (or at least a portion of it, some staying up to watch the first hour or two). In the build up to the series, cricket fans have something to focus on in the dreary winter months. They will also start to offer their opinions of selecting the winning team, who will be the best English player, what the series score will be & how England will manage to beat the Australians to whomever might listen.

With the stage set on Thursday 12th December, 5 weeks of competition ahead, the very first ball grounded English Cricket Fans. It is the hope that kills you. A loss of England’s opening batsman, Rory Burns, as he was bowled by Mitchell Starc. This has only happened once before in an Ashes Series and has not happened since 1936. In hindsight, the writing was on the walls for English cricket fans, but hindsight is a beautiful thing.

Did English cricket fans continue to watch the matches throughout the early hours of the night, of course they did. Had false hope led to the belief that when they woke up each morning and checked the scorecard that they would see a Root/Stokes partnership of 200 and England would be 450-3 having bowled the Australians out for under 100? Absolutely. The optimism often deflects the reality. With England having not won an Ashes Series in Australia since 2013, the chances of a successful winter were slim to say the least.

England ended up losing The Ashes 4-0 and the Urn remains under Australian possession until the next series. Nevertheless, did English fans celebrate when England managed to bat out for a draw at the culmination of the Fourth Test in Sydney, with James Anderson and Stuart Broad (known more for their bowling prowess than their batting) seeing out the last over and saving the English cricket team from a ‘whitewash’ losing the series 5-0, you couldn’t be more correct!

‘But why?’ I hear you ask - without hope, there is no point!

(Photo from TMS, Twitter)

For those 5 weeks, whilst the cold, dark, wintery conditions enclose around, The Ashes offers a small glimmer of what is to come, regardless of the result. It reassures fans to know that despite England’s performances down under, in England, the cricket grounds that had been ‘put to bed’ for the winter will soon be revisited by Ground Staff (both those who are paid and those volunteer mercenaries) throughout the nation as they battle with English conditions to start the process of preparing a pitch, proper and ready for play in the Summer. Whilst the cricket season waits on, and players start to dust the cobwebs off the kit bags and attend ‘winter nets’, followers of cricket park their opinions on the Men’s team until the next test series emerges.

Followers of England Women will have been hopeful for a different outcome to the men as their series started on the 20th January and will continue through to the 7th Feb. The Women’s Ashes series includes: 3 T20s, 3 One Day Matches and One Test Match. However, the first match of their Ashes series, a T20, reminded fans of how formidable and ruthless Australia can be seeing Australia chasing down 169 for the loss of only one wicket. One can only hope that England Women can avoid a punishment that the Men received during their time in Australia.

With the days getting longer and the time struck off until the English season begins in April, English Fans have two tours of the West Indies to enjoy (or endure). The focus will move to the white-ball format of the game – games concluded in one full, or half day. It is this format that England Men became World Champions of in 2019 and it is at the top of the pile they hope to remain with an under-par performance in the red-ball format in recent series.

With the next Ashes series falling in Summer 2023, in England, there will be copious opportunity for English cricket fans to continue their trials and tribulations:

• ‘What is the best opening partnership?’

• ‘Why haven’t we got a genuine spinner playing in our Test Matches?’

• ‘Who actually selects these teams and do they know anything about cricket’?

• ‘Do you think we’ll win the series? I reckon we’ll pump the Aussies this time!’

In the meantime, 2022 will be a telling Summer for the Men’s English Cricket Team as they host New Zealand, India and South Africa in Test Series.

Surely the Summer will be better than the bleak mid-winter of 2021?