Five Ashes series that changed cricket

1899: Backlash against batsmen

It was not until the 14th edition that Australia won an Ashes series in England, but the end of the 19th century and the start of the 20th was a time when the Mother Country was subservient to the colonies. Between 1898 and 1902, England won once in a run of 18 Tests against Australia.

For the first time, England’s XI in 1899 was picked by a panel of selectors, rather than by the club hosting the match. Also for the first time, the series featured five (three-day) Tests in England, an increase from three. For the last time, WG Grace played Test cricket.

The weather was sunny, the scores high. The Tests yielded four draws and big scores. “Under its present conditions, [cricket] is in the very direst peril of degenerating from the finest of all summer games into an exhibition of dullness and weariness,” AG Steel wrote in Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack. There were several suggested law reforms: expanding the leg-before rubric, shortening the space between wickets to 20 yards and abolishing boundary hits.

At MCC’s AGM on May 2, 1900, overs were increased from five to six balls and the follow-on (made optional if leading by 150 in a three-day match) and declaration (permitted after luncheon on the second day) limits were changed. The increase from three Tests to five marked the start of internationals becoming central to the tour at the expense of other non-international matches, which numbered 30 in 1899 (compared to zero in 2023).

1930: Bradman provokes Bodyline

Grace had been cricket’s celebrity, but his summer exploits were nothing compared to the debut appearance of Don Bradman in England. His 1930 haul is the standard to which no one else has risen. Arriving aged 21, Bradman was highly regarded, averaging above 90 in first-class cricket and with a record score of 452 not out. In the summer of 1930 he scored 3,170 runs at an average of 99.06 from his 29 matches. Seven Test innings brought 974 runs, the highest achieved in a series, with Australia winning 2-1. “There are those who say that he cannot get any better,” The Cricketer magazine wrote. “But when a genius or phenomenon of this nature crops up there is no telling what he may do.”

Such was Bradman’s brilliance that it led to one of the most infamous tactical ripostes in sport. The story goes that Bradman had been unsettled by fast, short bowling. Douglas Jardine had missed most of the 1930 first-class season because of business commitments, but was back in the fray for 1932-33 and named England captain. Leg-theory had been practised before – by Sydney Barnes and Frank Foster in the 1911-12 Ashes, for example – but never at the pace of 1932-33, when the “Bodyline” of Harold Larwood and Bill Voce helped England win back the Ashes 4-1. Bradman averaged a mere 56.57. Only in 1948 would he ever average below 90 again in a Test series. A cable of protest was sent to MCC by the Australian Board of Control after the third Test, stating: “The Bodyline bowling has assumed such proportions as to menace the best interests of the game. It makes the protection of the body by batsmen the main consideration; is causing an intensely bitter feeling between the players, as well as injuries, and in our opinion is unsportsmanlike.”

AA Milne, author of Winnie-the-Pooh, corresponded with The Times, calling it the “laugh of the year” that after years of accusations that cricket was “killed by mammoth scores and marathon matches” as batsmen protected their wicket with their bodies, the latest scandal was about the bowlers’ successful rejoinder. The Times reported in November 1933 that bowling that was “obviously a direct attack by the bowler upon the batsman would be an offence against the spirit of the game”, with policing left up to captains and umpires.

1958-59: Chucking row

The golden age of batsmanship was over. Post-war lethargy had taken hold and cricket scribes feared the public was losing interest. England had to rebuild after the war and did so in the 1950s, winning three successive Ashes series with a run rate of just above two an over, but a 4-0 defeat in 1958-59 marked the start of a 12-year period in which Australia held the Ashes. England had Trevor “Barnacle” Bailey as their all-rounder, but this was the decade in which Australia had a nest of good eggs: Richie Benaud, the captain, and Alan Davidson assumed responsibilities after Keith Miller played his last Test in 1956. The 4-0 defeat in Australia in 1958-59 led to Gubby Allen, the chairman of selectors, announcing a rebuild to challenge in 1961. Bailey and Jim Laker were among those who never played for England again.

The series had controversy over the “throw and drag” actions of bowlers, the quality of umpiring, and the slow pace of play. The front-foot no-ball law had not yet come in and, by dragging their back foot, bowlers were able to shorten the distance to the batsmen without being called by umpires. Throwing was not a new issue but Harry Gee, for Wisden, reckoned that four Australia bowlers – chief among them Ian Meckiff – should have been no-balled for throwing. Before Australia’s return to England in 1961, a truce dubbed a “charter for chuckers” was agreed: in the lead-up to the first Test, Australians with suspect actions would not be no-balled, but umpires would instead file confidential reports. Compared with 1958-59, the series was regarded as a bastion of “good fellowship”. Benaud promised to do away with slow, dull cricket and was widely praised. He developed a media flair, too, that served him well.

1970-71: Age of the bumper

It was not so much the six Tests played in 1970-71, and England’s 2-0 victory to end a run of six series without success, that altered cricket as much as the events of January 5. The Melbourne Test was a washout and so a one-day match (40 eight-ball overs) was arranged. When Australia came to England in 1972, they played three further ODIs – the format was starting to catch on. The Tests were full of acrimony, players disagreeing with umpires. Raymond Illingworth, the England captain, led his men off the field in Sydney amid a storm of jeers and beers over intimidating bowling. England, who were in the midst of a run of 39 Tests during which they lost only once and drew 22 times, won the 1970-71 series 2-0.

The 1970-71 and 1972 series were hailed as a return to assertive splendour by Benaud. “I am all for a little bit of controversy in Test cricket and I would require some convincing that events in the past two series have done the game the slightest bit of harm,” he wrote in Wisden. “Gods or flannelled fools? Voiceless robots or men of character, willing and able to express their feelings? Well, you can take your pick, but I am inclined … to prefer the latter any day.”

John Snow was at the vanguard of an England bowling unit who used the bumper to devastating effect in 1970-71. In the next series in Australia, in 1974-75, the aggression of Dennis Lillee and Jeff Thomson led Wisden to write that “never in the 98 years of Test cricket have batsmen been so grievously bruised and battered by ferocious, hostile short-pitched balls … England’s batsmen must have experienced the same sort of emotion as they waited for the next ball as early Christians felt as they waited in the Colosseum for the lions”.

Tony Greig’s use of a bouncer against Lillee was regarded as the breaking of the unwritten law that bowlers should pitch the ball up to tailenders. When England moved on to New Zealand, Ewen Chatfield, the home side’s No 11, was hit on the temple by a bouncer from Peter Lever and needed the kiss of life. The intimidation became widespread and helmets entered the game. “I find it sartorially and aesthetically an objectionable trend,” John Woodcock wrote in the 1981 Wisden Almanack.

2005: The greatest summer

Eighteen years ago, cricket was cool and belonged to the nation. England won 2-1, their first Ashes triumph since 1986-87, and celebrated in Trafalgar Square.

“Many of those present were so young they would be hard-put to say whether Mike Brearley came before or after the stegosaurus,” Matthew Engel wrote in Wisden. Not only was it regarded as the greatest summer, it was also the year of England’s first T20 international and of the last NatWest Tri-Series, which included a huge upset as Bangladesh beat Australia in Cardiff. In the franchise age, it is difficult enough to get two countries in the same place for a handful of days, let alone three for more than a month. Australia played several tour matches; not the 30 of 100 years earlier, but more than the zero of 2023. This was the last summer of live Test cricket on Channel 4 before Sky Sports took over, putting international cricket behind a paywall. More than eight million people tuned in for the finale of England’s victory in the fourth Test at Trent Bridge.

Wisden had been bemoaning the death of leg spin since long before Shane Warne was born. Having absurdly delivered the “Ball of the Century” with his first delivery in Ashes cricket in 1993, Warne took 40 wickets in 2005 and still ended up on the losing side. This summer will be the first series since he left us.

By 2005 and the 63rd men’s Ashes, much had been taken and much abided: there were no throwing controversies or front-foot variations; there was barracking by the crowd, and beef from Ricky Ponting when he was run out by the substitute fielder, Gary Pratt. The bouncers that had plagued the Seventies and Eighties appeared on occasion, for instance when Steve Harmison struck members of Australia’s top order on the first morning of the series at Lord’s. And the play was not dull, typified by England’s 407 in 79.2 overs at Edgbaston. Then came the T20 revolution through the continued growth of the Twenty20 Cup, the short-lived Indian Cricket League, and then the dominance of the IPL. All change.