Thursday 4 July 2013 09:38, UK
The extra spark of the Ashes can often blur the thin line between the comic and the controversial.
The 1979/80 series took place at a time when advertising and gimmicks were taking firm root in the game and Dennis Lillee wanted to promote a ridiculous object - an aluminium bat, which scuffed the ball every time it made contact. It made a rather different sound when struck - something akin to the tinny clang you get when a ball hits a car bonnet, rather than the sweet sound of leather on willow or a golf ball struck out of the middle on an old wooden club. When the umpires told Dennis he wasn't allowed to use it he lost his rag, which he usually did when things didn't go his way, and hurled it across the field in the direction of our captain Mike Brearley, who had an equally ridiculous beard at the time which led to him being nicknamed 'the Ayatollah'. In this series however, unlike the one before, we were up against Australia's first XI rather than their third XI so the result was rather different - they took the series 3-0 in fact. Since then advertising has become an integral part of the game and these days we see sponsors' names emblazoned on everything from bats and shirts to grounds and stumps, while innovation has given us such products as the curious-looking Mongoose.
To this day Bumble gets agitated when you mention the Michael Slater run out that wasn't given at Sydney 1999. TV decisions had been around for a while but they hadn't quite been perfected yet! We were back in the series at 2-1 down after Dean Headley's match-winning spell at Melbourne and we were playing good cricket too so felt we had a good chance of levelling the series. Australia were 60-2 in their second innings when Slats came back for another run only to be caught short of his ground by Headley's direct hit. We were convinced he was out by a distance and assumed he'd be sent on his way; even Slats seemed resigned to his fate but Steve Dunne referred the decision upstairs where the third umpire, Simon Taufel, said he couldn't give a decision because the camera was at the wrong angle and Peter Such was in the way. So somehow Slats being Slats survived and went on to score 123 out of a total of 184. That left us chasing 287 - rather more than it should have been - and we came up short. It was doubly frustrating because we felt we had a genuine chance of winning and because it came after Athers got a rough decision at Adelaide. I was standing at the other end when he nicked Stuart MacGill and the ball bounced into the hands of Mark Taylor at slip. Amazingly he was given and from 83-1 with Athers going well and Australia's first innings well in our sights 391 we slipped to 227 all out. Needless to say, Bumble got all jumpy again!
The Ashes is full of great moments but the greatest you can have as a player and the one moment you will always cherish is beating Australia in their own backyard. A lot of England players haven't had that experience since 1986/87; you will not get any more satisfaction from any other sporting performance in your life as an England cricketer than to win in Australia. That tour was one to remember for so many reasons (although I did forget to take my bat out with me against Western Australia) and overall it was something very special. Kath and the kids were out there for most of the tour and we had a suite which became the team room, the focal point for that side once the day's cricket was over. Elton John was there and combined watching us with his tour of Australia. Sometimes he came along and played the role of disc jockey. We enjoyed a lot of his music and he enjoyed watching us beat Australia, so needless to say we all had a very good party at the end of it!
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