The Daily Telegraph - 01.08.2019

10 *** Thursday 1 August 2019 The Daily Telegraph

The Ashes

1989 – AUSTRALIA’S YEAR

Allan Border’s party were

derided beforehand but,

writes Rob Bagchi, their

4-0 win set the blueprint

for years of domination

I

t must have been tempting for

the curator of the MCC

Museum in the Eighties to

check whether the contents of

the Ashes urn had changed. It

would not have been a surprise

to discover that the incinerated

remnants of a bail had mutated

into a cremated wooden spoon,

such was the humbled state of the

England and Australia Test teams

as they prepared to play their final

series of the decade in 1989.

In the 2½ years since Mike

Gatting’s side had retained the

Ashes at the MCG, a fifth series

victory in the past six attempts,

England had won only one of 18

Tests. Australia, under Allan

Border, were in no better shape.

They had beaten England to win

the World Cup in 1987 but his

captaincy had brought only seven

wins in 39 Tests. Border’s squad,

who left on a famously lager-

pickled Qantas flight to London,

were scorned back home as “the

worst team ever to leave Australia”.

Jeff Thomson, who had

terrorised England in 1974-75,

signed on as a punchy columnist

with a tabloid and tore into their

chances. First, he singled out the

unpolished fast bowler Merv

Hughes, then used their sponsor,

Castlemaine, to mock them.

“I reckon the English batsmen

could play [him] with a walking

stick,” he wrote. “I wouldn’t give

you a XXXX for Australia’s chances

of winning the Ashes.”

Ted Dexter, the former England

captain, had succeeded Peter May

as chairman of selectors at the start

of the year and brought with him a

hostage to fortune from his

previous occupation as a pundit.

Graham Gooch as captain, he had

written, “was like being hit in the

face with a dead fish”. He

interviewed Gatting and David

Gower for the position, and

plumped for the former, who had

lost his job a year before, only to be

overruled by the Test and County

Cricket Board, which was still

smarting from the Shakoor Rana

affair. Gower started his second

stint as the compromise candidate.

On the morning of the first Test,

the captain had intended to pick his

spinner, John Emburey, but was

convinced by the weather forecast

and the chairman to go for an

all-seam attack against the advice

of the groundsman. “It galls me to

think,” Gower said, “that the game

was partially lost on placing undue

reliance on Michael Fish’s isobar

chart on breakfast TV.” Gower went

out to toss with his old friend

Border, won it and put them in.

While Border was civil to his

opposite number, the arch-

exponent of Aussie mateship in the

past was now frosty. He had

socialised heavily with Ian Botham,

Gower and Allan Lamb in the past

and knew them more intimately

than anyone on his own side. He

had played a couple of seasons with

Gooch at Essex and had been

instrumental in recruiting Botham

for Queensland. But he had been

stung by Ian Chappell’s criticism in

1987 – “AB, these blokes are belting

the hell out of you but you’re out

there being their best mate, for

Christ’s sake” – and replaced

warmth with the deep freeze.

Australia were more nervous

than they let on. Dean Jones, Steve

Waugh, Ian Healy, Mark Taylor,

Geoff Marsh and Hughes had not

established themselves as Test

players in spite of several chances.

By the close of play on day two

Taylor and Waugh, in his 27th Test,

had made maiden centuries and

Border declared on Saturday

morning on 601 for seven. Phil

DeFreitas, Neil Foster, Phil Newport

and Derek Pringle sent down 153

overs and not one of them swung

the ball off the path of virtue.

Australia’s second declaration left

England 83 overs to survive. They

managed 55.2, Terry Alderman (left)

taking five for 44 to follow his five

for 107 in the first innings. Little

wonder that by the series end one

example of the staple graffiti slogan

of the age, “Thatcher Out”, had

been appended to read “lbw b

Alderman”.

At Lord’s Waugh added an

unbeaten 152 to his 177 not out at

Leeds, putting on 263 for the last

four wickets. Australia won by six

wickets and the newspapers’ glee

in his name – “Waugh declared”,

“O What a Lovely Waugh” and

“Waugh blimey!” were three of the

better puns – soon gave way to

anger.

For the first time since

Bradman’s Invincibles in 1948,

England were being massacred at

home by a team who were not

West Indies. The red tops went for

Gower pitilessly and by flippantly

truncating a poisonous Saturday

night press conference at Lord’s,

he poured petrol on the flames.

On the field Australia were

1989 ASHES RESULTS

1st Test

Headingley

Australia won by

210 runs

2nd Test

Lord’s

Australia won by

6 wickets

3rd Test

Edgbaston

Draw

4th Test

Old Trafford

Australia won by

9 wickets

5th Test

Trent Bridge

Australia won by

inns & 180 runs

6th Test

The Oval

Draw

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