By Richard Crook

Richard Crook with his mate Ian Botham - who also thinks the Ashes is the pinnacle of cricket

The Ashes is what Test cricket is all about – so says Sir Ian Botham – and who am I to disagree!

The idea of an ashes cricket blog was one of those late night Mipim conversations held with the PW journalists, yet unlike many of those conversations in the South of France this one has come to fruitition! So you may well ask why is a Marketing Director writing this cricket blog, and what credentials does he have?!?
 
Well, other than being an avid fan and part time player, probably in the Boycott mould of batting and in the slow right arm swing bowling mould, my pedigree is I guess in touring! Having been on the last two Ashes tours in Australia, the last 2 tours in the West Indies and the last South African tour, plus numerous home test matches, I also get involved in the world of cricket professionally through my role at DJ.

We have a specialist division called DJ Sport whose recent projects have included The Brit Oval, The Rose Bowl and Old Trafford. We are also proud community facility sponsors of Surrey Cricket Club, and over the years have also been Alec Stewarts sponsor – so what you may ask, well this have given me access to ask plenty of personalities in the world of cricket and their views for the forthcoming series.
 
 
PLAY UP PLAY UP AND PLAY THE GAME
 
So will the series be played in the correct Corinthian spirit of cricket? I see cricket Australia have banned the team from sledging! Well that’s like asking an Irish man not to drink Guinness. I don’t believe it for a minute, neither does Andrew Strauss who I see has said he expects England’s mental fortitude to be severely tested by Australia, but says his team have what it takes to handle the psychological warfare. Lets hope so, as they will need it, and sledging has brought out some of the funniest cricket moments ever…I think a blog of the best cricket sledges could be a real winner…
 
A few of my other favourites
 
Rod Marsh and Ian Botham: When Botham took guard in an Ashes match, Marsh welcomed him to the wicket with the immortal words: “So how’s your wife and my kids?”
 
Robin Smith and Merv Hughes: During 1989 Lords Test Hughes said to Smith after he played and missed:”You can’t f (_)cking bat”. Smith to Hughes after he smacked him to the boundary: “Hey Merv, we make a fine pair. I can’t f (_)cking bat and you can’t f(_)cking bowl.”
 
James Ormond had just come out to bat on an ashes tour and was greeted by Mark Waugh……. MW : “F(_)k me, look who it is. Mate, what are you doing out here, there’s no way you’re good enough to play for England” JO : “Maybe not, but at least I’m the best player in my family”
 
Yet another Australian witticism with this time porky England batsman Mike Gatting the victim. Shane Warne, trying to tempt the batsman out of his crease mused what it took to get the plump character to get out of his crease and drive. Wicketkeeper Ian Healy piped up, “Put a Mars Bar on a good length. That should do it.”
 
RIGHT SAID FRED
 
So with one week to go until the first test in Cardiff what do we think of England’s chances? Well as always the key seems to be the fitness of Freddie Flintoff, and at the moment he is doing everything asked of him, and playing in the warm up game Vs Warwickshire having a few games under his belt for Lancashire as well. His bowling won’t be the problem, it never is, but we need him batting well at 6 or 7 in the order to give us the strength in depth in the batting.
 
Over the last week or so I’ve asked a few ex-players their thoughts on the likely team for Cardiff, Gooch says it is a certainty that England will play 2 spinners. Swann is first choice, with a battle for Monty and the promising Rashid for the other place. Mr G reckons it has to be Rashid and that Monty’s county form this year is abysmal, so who am I to argue.
Therefore, my prediction is that the team and line up bearing late injuries for Cardiff will be Strauss, Cook, Bopara, Pieterson, Collingwood, Prior, Flintoff, Broad, Swann, Rashid and Anderson. This means with only 3 seamers we need Freddie fit and firing, can he last for 5 days? The Aussie team is much harder to call, but at the moment it looks like Watson won’t be fit, so they may go with Marcus North and not play Hauritz the spinner, and possibly not even play Brett Lee – which wouldn’t be a great disappointment to the England batsman.
 
Strauss and Cook look solid as an opening pair, Strauss has risen to the captaincy and this is bringing out the best in his form, he excelled in the West Indies over the winter. Cook is a man in form, with centuries for Essex this summer and of course for England against the West Indies. Boparo looks a class act, and could be the star of the series – his mentor Graham Gooch certainly thinks so – and he comes into the series with 3 centuries in 3 knocks earlier this summer.
KP will rise to the occasion as he always does, you suspect he has waiting for this series for 2 years and will score big to make up for disappointments over the winter. Collingwood is England’s Mr Gritty, our very own Steve Waugh.
If he doesn’t score heavily early in the series his place will be under threat from Ian Bell. Prior is the wicket keeper batsmen purely because of his batting, averaging over 40 in tests. No doubt he is the best batsman of the keepers, but his keeping looks poor, he probably isn’t even the tenth best keeper in the country.
 
This brings Flintoff in at 7 which looks a better balance, good to see his 91 last week in the Twenty20 for Lancashire as his batting has been shocking, we need some lusty blows and quick runs from him. Broad looks a class act to follow, probably England’s find of the last year.
His batting is solid, and his bowling needs to be accurate and tight, our very own Glen McGrath, with a surprise quicker ball. He call let Freddie and Jimmy Anderson try and blast them out.
Swann has been a revelation, although he may be an orthodox spinner, he seems to have the confidence and verbals to thrive on the pressure, expect plenty of wickets and some useful late order runs. Rashid is the surprise pick, who would have thought England might out leg spin the Australians, but he is the element of surprise on his side, did well in the Twenty20, and is a very useful late order batsman with championship hundreds to his name. This brings us to Anderson, probably our form swing bowler, he needs some cloud cover to have a stunning series – but I reckon he is worth a punt as leading wicket taker this series.
 
Expect Sidebottom to play on the less spin friendly pitches, and Bell to get at least 2 tests at some point….
 
 
PREDICTIONS
 
Well like 2005 it is going to close, I certainly don’t see a 5-0 win for the Aussies this time. If the sun shines in Cardiff I predict a win for England, followed by a win for the Aussies at Lords as our record there tends to be poor, I can see a draw at Edgbaston, an England win at a seaming Headingly followed by a tense draw at the Oval again – so I’m going for a 2-1 England win.
 
I’ll be spending most of this summer either glued to the action on TV or watching in person live from the ground for the latest blog updates, starting next week with 5 days in Cardiff.
 
So let’s hear your views on the team selection, best sledges and of course your predictions.

Just to get your juices flowing….