HUW TURBERVILL: If the 1990/91 tour had seen a clash between Graham Gooch and David Gower, the campaign four years later was also not harmonious
"It is the toughest tour. It is a pretty harsh environment. You must be at the top of your game at all times. Any sign of weakness and Shane Warne – and the Australian team as a whole – would crush you."
John Crawley and his England team-mates watched on, powerless, as Warne destroyed England in the second innings of the second Test of the 1994/95 Ashes at Melbourne. Chasing an unlikely 388 to level the series, England had limped to 91 for 6. It was 11.44am on day five, and the leg-spinner stepped up to deliver his 13th over. Six close-in fielders crouched expectantly.
Phil DeFreitas survived the first three balls but could not lay a bat on the fourth. It was a leg-break, and although it may have gone on to miss off stump, he played back and was given out, lbw. "It didn’t turn as much as I meant it to," said Warne, who called the ball his 'Slower Southern Special’.
Next up was Darren Gough, who was having a great tour. "He’d slogged me a few times in the series, but it bounced and turned," said Warne. It was a bigger leg-break; the ball grazed Gough’s glove and was pouched by wicketkeeper Ian Healy.
Devon Malcolm came in for the hat-trick ball. Watching from the non-striker’s end was vice-captain Alec Stewart, who was in enough pain already because of a broken finger. Stewart asked Malcolm what he was going to do. "I’m going to smack it."
Warne did not bowl another leg-spinner, fearing it would beat everything. Instead he went for a top-spinner. "My hand’s getting sweaty, but I thought, 'Come on, it’s got to happen'. It was a fairytale."
Malcolm shoved his pad out, the ball again hit the glove and David Boon, at short leg, celebrated his 34th birthday by taking the catch. "It was the quickest I’ve ever run to get down to Boony," Warne said. "I think I stuck my tongue in his ear. I was just trying to tie up an end and I got lucky."
It was Warne’s first hat-trick in any cricket and the seventh in an Ashes Test. He also passed 150 wickets in that match in only 31 Tests, including 50 against England in eight matches.
The fiery Craig McDermott took England’s final wicket to make it 2-0 in a series that had gone wrong since Michael Slater cut DeFreitas’s innocuous first ball for four in the first Test at Brisbane. The dashing right-hander and his left-handed captain, Mark Taylor, had hammered 26 off the first four overs from DeFreitas and the hapless Martin McCague, setting the tone for an emphatic victory. Now two Tests were gone and already England’s hopes of regaining the Ashes seemed dead.
Devon Malcolm [Graham Chadwick/Getty Images]
The tourists rallied, however. They had the better of a see-saw draw at Sydney, won thrillingly at Adelaide, before finally running out of steam at Perth, where Australia secured a 3-1 series win to retain the Ashes they had captured in 1989.
By that final Test England had summoned six replacements because of injury – a familiar hazard of modern tours to Australia.
If the 1990/91 tour had seen a clash between Graham Gooch and David Gower, the campaign four years later was also not harmonious.
Mike Atherton had succeeded Gooch as captain for the final two Tests of the 1993 Ashes, with Australia leading 3-0. England lost the first under their new leader at Edgbaston, but won the final Test thrillingly at The Oval. It was hoped it would signal a new dawn, but Atherton could never quite overcome the structural deficiencies that hindered the England team at the time.
Warne had introduced himself with the 'Ball of the Century'– his first ball in Ashes cricket – to bowl Gatting at Old Trafford, on his way to 34 wickets in the series. Gooch (673 runs) and Atherton (553) had terrific campaigns, but Australia had seven batsmen – Steve Waugh (83), Boon (69), Mark Waugh (61), Healy (59), Allan Border (54), Taylor (42) and Slater (41) – who averaged more than 40. Warne and Merv Hughes also took more than 30 wickets each.
England then lost a Test series 3-1 in the West Indies. So while Atherton’s job was safe, English cricket turned to Ray Illingworth in the spring of 1994 as a popular choice to succeed Ted Dexter as chairman of selectors. They hoped to roll back the years to 24 winters earlier.
The summer started smoothly, with a 1-0 series victory over New Zealand. But while there was much Illingworth admired about his new captain, particularly his gritty batting, built up north, the duo did not always agree.
Their relationship developed fault-lines after a notorious incident during the first Test against South Africa, at Lord’s the summer before. It happened on the third day, the Saturday, at 2.50pm, and became known as the ‘dirt-in-the-pocket’ affair. Atherton had kept grit in his pocket to keep one side of the ball dry to help Gough, who was finding reverse swing. When quizzed about incriminating pictures on the BBC that showed him applying the dirt to the ball, Atherton omitted to tell match referee Peter Burge what he had in his pocket. If he had known about the dirt, Burge said he would have suspended Atherton. In the eyes of the Test and County Cricket Board, that would probably have meant the end of his captaincy. Illingworth acted swiftly, he says to save him, by fining him £1,000. Atherton had been backed by the public up until then, but his actions provoked an uproar, with The Times leading the chorus of disapproval.
It is suggested that the incident built a bond between the 26-year-old and the man 36 years his senior. That may have been so, but Illingworth now had the whip hand. After that, his thoughts on the composition of the Ashes tour party seemed to hold sway.
Malcolm wrote that Atherton was "undermined by Illingworth’s domineering methods and his awareness that he owed his job to him." Malcolm said Illingworth delivered "monologues about what it was like in his day and a scepticism about the new methods being adopted by other national sides.”
Illingworth advocated five-man bowling attacks, and claimed Atherton had been 'brainwashed' by Gooch and coach Keith Fletcher into favouring six batsmen.
Where he made a mistake, however, was in believing that age was not a factor when it came to touring Australia. Illingworth’s 'Dad’s Army' may well have had an average age of more than 30 in 1970/71, but the game had moved on.
Illingworth also had his contemporaries, Fred Titmus and Brian Bolus, as selectors, and used John Edrich and Peter Lever as coaches. It prompted Ian Botham to comment: "Illingworth is out of touch and sympathy with modern cricketers."
The biggest blunder was in selecting Gooch and Mike Gatting, who were too old for such a gruelling tour against such a strong Australian side.
Gooch was 40 and on his fifth tour down under. And while Gatting was four years younger, he did not look it. When Dennis Lillee came out of retirement to bowl at him in the one-day tour opener at Lilac Hill, he said: "Gatting, you’re so fat I can’t see the stumps."
Gooch started well, making 129, 38, 68, 50 and 101 in the warm-up games, but he managed only 245 runs in the Tests at an average of 24.50. Gatting, who had returned to international cricket in 1993 after his ban for going to South Africa had expired, fared even worse, with 182 at 20.22, although he did make a century at Adelaide. The fifth Test at Perth was the last for both of them.
Gooch said: "I was unable, as of old, to convert good starts into major innings: 30s and 40s may be good enough for some. Not for me. It was definitely time to call it a day."
Illingworth said he had not expected them to play in the same side, and he told me: "I still defend that selection as they were such fine players of spin. We had to think of the Warne factor and there were not any better players against him."
Angus Fraser disagreed, though, and told me: "They were undoubtedly too old. Maybe not so much Gooch, but certainly Gatting – he struggled." The irony was that they were available for every match.
Illingworth also had insufficient faith in Fraser. Atherton wanted him in Australia, but Illingworth over-ruled him, feeling that the 29-year-old had lost "vital nip". Illingworth plumped for Perth-born McCague instead, but, after a hostile reception from Australians, he was overwhelmed at Brisbane. "McCague wasn’t bowling well and no one liked his attitude," wrote Gough.
Fraser was called into the party because of illness and injury, and proved his character and class with a brilliant spell at Sydney.
Illingworth also had a blind spot about wicketkeeper Jack Russell, picking Steve Rhodes instead, but he barely scored a run.
In his autobiography, Atherton wrote: "I had serious reservations about ... McCague and Gatting. I had seen McCague’s A team report from a year earlier and it indicated that he was likely to be a major injury risk. I had nothing against Gatting, except that I felt his time had passed. Generally I had worries about the athleticism of the squad."
McCague is said to have taken the 'Boon challenge' on the journey to Australia (after Boon had allegedly drunk 52 cans of beer on the flight to England in 1989). What impression that made on Atherton is open to conjecture.
Gough was an immediate success, though, and was the find of the tour. He was taken to the hearts of even Australian fans for his effervescent displays, and he took 20 wickets in the first three Tests before he broke down in a one-day international at Melbourne and returned home.
Overall, though, the tour was a disappointment, with the World Series Cup (as it was to be known for the penultimate time, and the last featuring England) even more humiliating than in 1982/83 and 1990/91. After losing to Zimbabwe and Australia A at Sydney, England were forced to watch Australia beat their own reserves 2-0 in the final.
Illingworth, who only spent three weeks in Australia, fell out with the key members of the England management: the captain, the coach and the tour manager, MJK Smith, who had been skipper on the 1965/66 trip.
Fletcher, who had succeeded the (generally) successful Micky Stewart, was relieved of his duties a month after the tour, two years into a five-year contract. Illingworth insisted he had played no part in it. He told the media that he liked Fletcher, one of his foot soldiers in 1970/71, and said he had just wanted him to be more high-profile.
Mike Gatting dressed as Father Christmas [Graham Chadwick/Getty Images]
But Martin Johnson wrote: "England’s practice sessions would not cause a sumo wrestler any discomfort in the wind and limb department."
The Sunday Telegraph’s Scyld Berry concluded that Fletcher had failed to translate his Essex persona – "stimulating, proactive and venturesome" – to international cricket; instead he had been "reactive and cautious".
A frustrated Illingworth clearly craved a more hands-on role, and he was eventually given it. The following winter, in South Africa, he was coach and manager, but with limited success. It proved arduous for him. He wanted the role in 1986 – now it was too late. He gave up his extra duties but stayed on as chairman of selectors until 1997.
Atherton acknowledges he and Illingworth developed "a mutual, grudging respect", but argued: "By vesting sole authority in Illingworth, they fundamentally altered the role of the captain without consultation. I believe the final responsibility for decision-making should be left to the captain."
As England arrived at Perth, the Australian side were playing in Pakistan under their new captain, the diplomatic and resourceful Taylor. They lost that series 1-0, but their key batsmen found form.
On the fight, Gough had hoped to tap into the Ashes knowledge of Gooch and Gatting, who sat alongside him, but after a few glasses of wine, they fell asleep. Gough did learn something, however, when he accompanied Gooch to see Harold Larwood, who now lived in a bungalow in Sydney. Larwood, aged 90, and Gough bonded, although the youngster was admonished for referring to ‘Bodyline’, rather than ‘Leg Theory’.
The management had to cope with a crisis involving Phil Tufnell. He had enjoyed the tour to Australia four years earlier, but this time he had just remarried. His new wife, Lisa, found his absence hard and Tufnell, in despair, smashed up his hotel room. He was admitted to a psychiatric ward in Perth. The management had identified Min Patel as a replacement, but Tufnell then discharged himself. Atherton wanted to send him home, but Smith felt that they were unable to do that on legal grounds, so a letter of warning was sent instead. Tufnell’s mental state improved, and his wife joined him later.
England played four first-class warm-up games, with mixed results, and as early as the first of those, against Western Australia at Perth, Atherton became seriously worried about the fielding: needing to put Graeme Hick, Stewart and Graham Thorpe close in as they were the best catchers, he had Gatting and Gooch at mid-on and mid-off, and spare seamer Joey Benjamin at cover.
After drawing with Western Australia and beating South Australia (a match in which Hick and Gooch made hundreds), 150 from Taylor helped New South Wales beat England in a tight game. Stewart’s century then hauled the tourists out of trouble against Australia A in a draw at Hobart, but had his index finger broken in the nets by Craig White (although he still played at Brisbane). Meanwhile Malcolm and Benjamin contracted chickenpox, (the latter was initially told he had shingles, bringing back memories of Alec Bedser’s misfortune 40 years earlier).
Malcolm’s loss was a real blow, for in England’s previous Test he had destroyed South Africa, taking 9 for 57 at The Oval, and had also played a key role in the win over Australia at the same ground in 1993.
Fletcher had built up Malcolm as a focal point of England’s attack. He compared him to Lillee and Jeff Thomson, and – perhaps unwisely – said that the Australians were scared of his pace. He also described Gough as ‘Yorkshire’s fastest since Freddie Trueman’. Lillee and Greg Chappell scoffed.
Fortunately Fraser was on hand. He said: "I was central to that whole Illingworth versus Atherton debate. I only found out that I wasn’t initially selected while watching on Sky TV. Athers wanted me in, Illy didn’t. I went over with my family to play grade cricket in Sydney, for Western Suburbs. I took a call from MJK saying that they needed me in Brisbane.
"I had deliberately positioned myself so if something happened I was on call. The management were happy, even though David Norrie had written a piece in The News of the World with me in which I’d given Illy a bit of stick for leaving me out. I copped a fine for that.
"It was funny; throughout my time with Illy, I’d be thinking I didn’t get on with him particularly, I’m struggling with him, then I thought I’d won him over, then he’d do something that made me think,'‘Oh, he is who I thought he was in the first place'.
"I came in from the outside, joined the squad and then started hearing all the moans and groans, and I sat there thinking, "You don’t know how lucky you are to be here”. I was having a good time in Sydney, but this is where I wanted to be."
Phil Tufnell [Graham Chadwick/Getty Images]
Crawley recalled: "It was my first Ashes tour, and the closest-fought of the three I went on. The sides were pretty evenly balanced... Australia were at their most beatable. The batting was strong – it nearly always is – but the bowling was different to later series... McDermott and Damien Fleming were very attacking bowlers, and they did not have the same control. The Australian pace attack tightened up after this series.”
Gatting was preferred to Crawley for the Test, but Illingworth refused to allow Fraser to play ahead of McCague. Australia won the toss, and batted first on a dry surface. Australia’s coach Bobby Simpson described it as a great batting strip. Slater made full use, scoring 176 (the first of three hundreds – and 623 runs – in the series).
"After that first ball from DeFreitas everybody looked at each other and said we’ve had it!" said Fraser. "It showed how fragile we were as a team.
"I flew home that night and went to practice. I hadn’t heard the score for a few hours and the Western boys told me it was 300 and plenty [329 for 4]. They said, 'Christ, mate, you must be a s--- bowler if you can’t get in that side'."
Gough could have been forgiven for being distracted, as his wife had given birth to their first child on the eve of the match, but he kept England in it by taking 4 for 107 to restrict Australia to 426.
England’s reply was pitiful: Atherton made 54 out of 167. McDermott – playing in his fifth Ashes series – took 6 for 53, on his way to 32 wickets in the series.
Australia did not enforce the follow-on, instead making 248 for 8. Taylor scored his first Ashes half-century in Australia after a poor 1990/91 series, while Tufnell took 4 for 79. Australia needed 88 overs to score those runs, but they still had plenty of time.
England fared better second time around: Hick top-scored with 80, Thorpe 67 and Gooch – with his final Test half-century – 56, but Warne snuffed out their resistance, taking 8 for 71, including (6 for 27 on the final) day, as England were dismissed for 323, to lose by 184 runs. Healy claimed nine victims in the match, equalling Australia’s Test record.
The only downside for the hosts was an inauspicious debut for a young seamer, who failed to take a wicket. His name was Glenn McGrath.
Gooch had looked good in both innings but tried to assert himself against Warne with cross-batted shots. Warne was the man of the match, recording match figures of 11 for 108, as his side won by 184 runs.
Atherton admitted: "It was a devastating defeat. I stressed before the Test the importance of not losing the first game – it can set the tone for the series."
Illingworth wrote: "We were slack in the field. We were giving the Aussies a big start. A score of 167 on a good pitch was pathetic."
He also caused a rumpus at a lunch in London to celebrate a sponsorship deal with Tetley. Responding to questions, he said Atherton had not phoned him from Australia. The Sun responded with the headline: 'Illy dishes the dirt on Cap’n Mike'. He rang his captain to explain himself, and wrote: "Fortunately he is too level-headed to take exception about that sort of rubbish." Atherton wrote, however: "It was extraordinarily ill-timed and tactless." And Gough agreed: "The general gist was that Illy had saved Athers’s job after the dirt-in-the-pocket incident and… had not even had the decency to call and thank him… [his] words were totally unnecessary."
Tufnell illustrated the dilemma facing the players when he wrote: "Most of the lads felt in their hearts that they should be supporting Athers, and did so up to a point. But self-preservation also came into the equation."
As had been the case four years earlier, England were forced to go from Test cricket to the one-day game, and then back again, and they made a dire start in the World Series, losing to Australia and Zimbabwe at Sydney. England also lost two 50-over matches against the Australian Cricket Academy. After one of the defeats at Toowoomba, The Sun printed the England team’s hotel fax number.
At least they hit back when they reverted to the longer game, beating Queensland thanks to a Gatting double-hundred and a five-wicket haul in the second innings from Tufnell.
Gary Lineker visited the team over the festive period to try to cheer them up, and then Illingworth arrived to have a look for himself. He even dressed up as Widow Twanky. Tufnell, suitably, attended as The Riddler. The presence of England’s ‘supremo’ had little immediate effect, though, as Australia took the second Test at Melbourne by 295 runs.
The hosts made one change, bringing Fleming in for McGrath – he would have to wait until the end of the series before he could establish himself as one of England’s main tormentors.
England brought back Malcolm for McCague, and, after winning the toss, they were pleased to see Australia restricted to 279, with Steve Waugh ending unbeaten on 94.
Stewart retired hurt, however, after he had the same finger broken by McDermott, and England could only manage 212 in reply. He later fractured the doomed digit a third time and failed to appear in the last three Tests. The impact of the injury was likened to that felt at the absence of Gooch four years earlier. "Our injured were queuing up for treatment like a throng of extras on the set of M*A*S*H. Truly, I had never known anything like it," said Gooch.
Warne took 6 for 64. although Atherton, Hick and Thorpe were all victims of contentious decisions.
McDermott picked up his 250th Test wicket when he dismissed Thorpe for the top score of 51, and he also caught and bowled Gooch with the first ball of the third day.
Australia then put the game safe, declaring on 320 for 7, Boon scoring 131, his first century at the MCG. In reply, England slumped to a sorry 92 all out, Warne taking his hat-trick after McDermott had blown away the top order with, 5 for 42, although Atherton was the victim of another rough decision.
Fraser had again been called up, this time for one-day duty, and stayed with the squad to watch the second Test. "I remember Fletcher grabbing Devon during a tea break, and telling him to ping Warne, saying, ‘He’s making us look like bloody fools when we bat’."
When asked if the players were aware of any friction between Fletcher and Illingworth, Fraser said: "It was there... but players just get on with it. I think Fletcher found it very hard."
Australia’s victory was all too easy. "The second innings was embarrassing," said Illingworth, "but Warne was the complete bowler."
Taylor reflected: "Shane is like the West Indian bowlers – when he gets on top he gets all over you."
By now Atherton was struggling to prevent his frustrations becoming public and he hinted that the tour party was not his: ”The message is clear. England need a young, mobile and refreshing team to remove the memories of tired defeatism."
Malcolm said the players were aware of Atherton’s frame of mind: "On that tour, he seemed to lack drive, there was no killer instinct from him on the field and he didn’t communicate very well with us. He gave the appearance of being fed up of being lumbered with a group of players who wouldn’t have all been his preferred choices."
Darren Gough [Ben Radford/Getty Images]
England were 2-0 down, problems were mounting, and Smith thought it was a good idea to stop the players talking to reporters. But it merely created a siege mentality, and Illingworth wrote: "I well know how a touring bunch of journalists operate, but you have to swallow it and use them for your own ends."
McCague had returned to England, after being diagnosed with a stress fracture of the shin, and White and Stewart were also unavailable for the third Test at Sydney, starting on New Year’s Day. On the eve of the Ashes decider, England tried to relax by seeing Cats at Her Majesty’s Theatre. They also attended a party with their Australian counterparts.
The following day Fraser was finally given his chance when DeFreitas dropped out at the last minute through injury. He played a major role in what turned out to be a riveting match.
England won the toss and batted, but slumped to 20 for 3. Atherton, with 88, and Crawley, who made 72, launched a brilliant recovery. Crawley insisted he always enjoyed facing Warne: "He was amazing, never to be beaten as a leg-spinner. Facing him was always great fun. The sledging washes over you. It was no different to county level, and I had become used to the Australian way since facing them at under-19 level. They were always pretty complimentary if you did well. I always found them gracious if they came second.
"You would never get a chance to find your stride, though... we never played easy sides. England have improved in that regard. We used to field pretty average opposition against the Australian tourists, now we put up A teams and so on."
They were both dismissed as England lost four wickets for four runs before the close. Fraser went in as nightwatchman and was involved in a run-out with Rhodes. "He was obviously Illy’s favourite child, so I thought, ‘I’m absolutely b-----ed now!’" said Fraser.
England rallied the following morning, however. Gough had told the dressing room to "strap on your seatbelts", and he smashed a swashbuckling 51, celebrating his half-century with a lasso salute. Fraser made 27 and Malcolm bashed two sixes off Warne over deep midwicket in his 29, as England reached 309. McDermott had gastroenteritis, but he still took 5 for 101.
The fireworks put renewed spirit into the bowlers and they destroyed the hosts’ top order. Gough took 6 six for 49, and receiving a congratulatory call from Larwood, and a note from Ray Lindwall, but Australia just avoided the follow-on with 116, Taylor making 49, and McDermott an unbeaten 21.
England then made 255 for 2, but they took too long doing it. Gooch, with 29 from 37 balls, batted selflessly, but Atherton faced 166 balls for his 67. Thorpe made an unbeaten 47, but a controversial decision by the captain was to have a major effect on morale. Hick had reached 98 when Atherton declared, denying him a first Ashes century. It prompted Malcolm to pipe up: "That’s a bit harsh, isn’t it?"
I was in the Sydney crowd and watched every ball of the match, and I could not believe it, although I was equally flummoxed to see Hick play out a maiden to Fleming moments before. It was a tidy over, but Hick merely patted back several balls just short of a length.
Opinion in the team was split down the middle. Crawley told me: "It was made clear that Athers wanted two bites of the cherry with the new ball, one with 30 minutes to go until tea, and another after tea... I was quite surprised by Hick’s reaction, he was normally mild-mannered – but the major goals of the team had to come first."
Gough said Atherton told Hick he had half-an-hour to reach three figures, while Tufnell said he could see both sides of the argument, although: "Test hundreds against Australia do not grow on trees. This one might have been the making of him.”
A few members of the squad felt Atherton had gone on too long as it was, however, with Malcolm claiming Gooch "had been muttering for a time, telling Athers that no one was bigger than the team."
Fraser thought it was a bad decision, though. ”Athers got that wrong and he accepts that,” he said. "It completely demoralised the side – we were upbeat, in a strong position and then all of a sudden that happened. Hick was a very popular member of the side – people really warmed to him and thought it was great he was going to get his hundred, so to then declare like that was pricking the balloon."
Angus Fraser [Ben Radford/Getty Images]
Illingworth also wrote: "There was no real reason why we could not have batted for at least another over. We looked flat ... the attitude of the players told me that the dressing room must have had an uncomfortable atmosphere just when it should have been bubbling."
Steve Waugh said: "It appeared as if Hick’s liberating gifts were about to re-emerge, but in stepped Atherton to extinguish the flame. One more over and he might have been a totally different player for the rest of his career."
Atherton himself expressed regret, writing: "In purely cricketing terms the move was entirely justified. However, it had a disheartening effect on the team precisely at a time when we ought to have been itching to get at Australia. For that reason, it is not a decision I would have taken again.”
Hick made no comment, but was devastated. Atherton went to his room to try to smooth it over, but Hick was not having it. Soon afterwards he went home with a prolapsed disc; like Gough, he missed the final two Tests.
Australia needed 449 to win, but Slater and Taylor made a scintillating start, and they closed the fourth day on 139 for 0. "I thought they had an outside chance," said Fraser.
Australia had a cautious fifth morning, however, scoring only 67 in 31 overs. A storm brought forward tea and removed the possibility of a home win. "The pitch was doing a bit as it had been under the covers for a couple of hours and had sweated," said Fraser, who capitalised by taking 5 for 73, including the wicket of Slater for 103, before he was forced off with cramp.
Malcolm had dismissed Taylor for 113, and he was the man Atherton would have picked to finish the innings off. Bad light had closed in, however, and England were forced to bowl Tufnell, Hick and Gooch. Australia held on, with Warne making an unbeaten 36 as he saw out the final 77 minutes with Tim May.
Warne was dropped by Malcolm off what everyone assumed to be the final ball; but after Atherton indicated to the umpires that there was time for one more over, May had to negotiate another four balls from Tufnell.
"While I was disappointed not to have won the game, and to see the Ashes go, I was pleased I had proved a few people wrong and that I still had something in me to perform at that level," said Fraser. Atherton wrote: "It put McCague’s bowling in the first Test to shame and made Illingworth’s pre-tour assessment of them both look foolish."
Illingworth acknowledged that it had been a fine spell, but chose not to back down entirely: "He bowled superbly but rain had juiced the pitch up at the right time." He also said that "Richie Benaud twice referred to Fraser’s bowling in other parts of the series as ‘ordinary’." The chairman of selectors was satisfied, though, saying: "We showed some fight."
Illingworth returned to England on January 17, and his overall assessment was downbeat. "There was a general slackness… I always believed as captain in making sure every player was always involved and knew what they were trying to do. That did not seem to happen in Australia. I was not there long enough to interfere – and that was the trouble; any suggestions from me about the dressing-room spirit were interpreted as interference, so I kept my distance."
Back in the World Series, a defeat to Australia A at Sydney was England’s ‘nadir’, according to Atherton, who said: "My head was spinning with the need to hide at least six players in the field." As is customary during Ashes tours in Australia, England would have been excused for thinking everyone was against them. As they practised, the music for The Muppet Show was played over the loudspeakers.
"I was not at all happy with the concept of Australia A," wrote Gooch. "In a way it took the mickey out of us – why should we help develop young Australian cricketers?’ Then when the A side and the senior Aussie team began to interchange players it made any form of real competition a complete farce."
England beat Australia in one game at the MCG, but at a cost: Gough tore ankle ligaments and his absence for the rest of the Ashes series was crucial. England kept battling, though, with Thorpe hitting 89 in a victory over Zimbabwe at Brisbane before ending up on an intravenous drip, but they missed out on the final, being forced to watch Australia beat their own reserves 2-0 in the final.
England drafted in Chris Lewis from club cricket ahead of the fourth Test at Adelaide, where they achieved a memorable win, by 106 runs.
Phil DeFreitas [Ben Radford/Getty Images]
Australia suffered a distraction in the lead-up, with reports suggesting Warne was becoming increasingly troubled by chronic shoulder troubles. He certainly was not the same force at Sydney, Adelaide and Perth (where he took only seven wickets at 51 apiece) as he had been at Brisbane and Melbourne (20 at 9.50).
Electing to bat, they made 353 thanks to Gatting, who scored a painstaking 117 (his 10th Test century) after being stranded on 99 for 31 minutes. Atherton, struck 80, and Gooch 47.
Slater and Taylor then made their third century opening stand of the series as Australia reached 419. Greg Blewett was called up at his home ground, and he became the 16th Australian to score a century on his Test debut, just as Mark Waugh had done four years earlier. It was a knock laced with lovely off-drives, while Steve Waugh just missed out on a hundred again, finishing unbeaten on 99 after his brother ran himself out.
England kept themselves in the hunt, with the fit-again DeFreitas making an aggressive 88, hammering McDermott for 41 in three overs, while Thorpe struck an enterprising 83 in a total of 328. Atherton said: "DeFreitas grabbed the game by the scruff of the neck." He was named man of the match, and said simply: "They bowled it short, I saw it and hit it. That’s about it, really." McDermott was again suffering from stomach cramps, but Mark Waugh filled the breach, taking 5 for 40 with his seamers.
Australia needed 263 in 67 overs and folded, despite Healy’s unbeaten 51, with Lewis taking 4 for 24, and Malcolm, at his aggressive best, 4 for 34. Uprooting Steve Waugh’s off stump provided an unforgettable image. Lewis was reprimanded for 'sending off' McDermott when he dismissed him, and lost 30 per cent of his match fee as a result, but Illingworth was pleased with his progress although he wished he had a bit of 'Trevor Bailey’s bloody-mindedness'.
Taylor admitted that "England had played better than us since Christmas". The hosts’ batting was suddenly looking vulnerable: they were missing the retired Allan Border, and Boon was struggling.
As badly as they had played in 1994, England’s displays in 1995 had now given them a chance of squaring the series.
However, Gooch chose this moment, ahead of the series finale, to announce his retirement from international cricket, forcing Tufnell to conclude: "Some of the boys thought that by making it public before the start of the Test, in a series we could still, theoretically at least, draw 2-2, he might just be sending out a message perilously close to premature surrender.”
Indeed, England came down to earth with a bump at Perth, losing by 329 runs. Their fielding was dire again, and they dropped seven chances in the first innings and 10 in the match.
Australia had won the toss, and Slater struck 124 in a total of 402. The worst moment came when Thorpe dropped Steve Waugh off Malcolm, and booted the ball in frustration, costing his side an extra two runs.
Thorpe put his annoyance to one side to make 123, however, and he received good support from Mark Ramprakash, who hit 72 after being drafted in from the A tour in India. But England’s total of 295 was substandard.
Australia then made 345 for 8 declared, with Blewett scoring another century to follow in the footsteps of Bill Ponsford and Doug Walters who had also reached three figures in their first two Tests.
Although Ramprakash scored 42, England were flattened by McDermott, who took 6 for 38 in a limp total of 123. As usual, tempers were fraying at the end of an unsuccessful Ashes tour, and Atherton smacked a plastic chair with his bat after McGrath had dismissed him for eight. McGrath took six wickets in the match, and went on to dismiss Atherton another 18 times in Tests.
Glenn McGrath [Graham Chadwick/Getty Images]
Taylor and his team paid a generous tribute to Gooch and Gatting, giving them both three cheers before they were dismissed for four and eight respectively. Gooch admitted he had felt "quite overwhelmed" after bowing out as England’s record run scorer, with 8,900.
Gooch paid tribute to Atherton, writing: "Nobody could accuse him of not leading from the front." But the frustrated skipper called for a revamping of the County Championship, argued for central contracts to protect the fast bowlers (just as Australia already did, restricting their appearances in domestic cricket) and said England needed an academy like their Antipodean counterparts. They were ideas ahead of their time. Atherton would eventually see his wish-list come to fulfilment, but future England captains would be the beneficiaries.
Our coverage of the Ashes is brought to you in association with Cricket 22.
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Ashes Chronicles – Part 2: Bedser carries struggling England as Close has a nightmare in 1950/51
Ashes Chronicles – Part 3: Typhoon Tyson blows Australia away in 1954/55
Ashes Chronicles – Part 4: England find series a drag in 1958/59
Ashes Chronicles – Part 5: Illy blasts ‘The Sussex Tour’ – 1962/63
Ashes Chronicles – Part 6: Air travel spooks England in 1965/66
Ashes Chronicles – Part 7: Illingworth shows bottle at Sydney in 1970/71
Ashes Chronicles - Part 8: Denness encounters Lillee-Thomson firestorm in 1974/75
Ashes Chronicles - Part 9: Packer defections allow Brearley to call the shots in 1978/79
Ashes Chronicles - Part 10: England forced into swift return to face Lillee's heavy metal
Ashes Chronicles - Part 13: Gower’s flighty nature leaves Gooch fuming in 1990/91
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