Test Match Special - Ashes Tour Tales Ep 2: Brace yourself for Brisbane

Episode Date: December 2, 2021

Ahead of the start of the series in Brisbane, Eleanor Oldroyd is joined by Ashes tour veteran Jonathan Agnew, three-time Ashes winner Steven Finn, TMS commentator Simon Mann and statistician Andy Zaltzman to share memories of trips to Queensland. From David Gower in his Tiger Moth to England’s 2010 great escape at the Gabba.

This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. The Dakar Rally is the ultimate off-road challenge. Perfect for the ultimate defender. The high-performance Defender Octa, 626 horsepower twin turbo V8 engine and intelligent 6D dynamics air suspension. Learn more at landrover.ca. BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts. Before you get stuck into your podcast, I'm Jonathan Agnew talking you through a very new mini-series

hitting test match special. It's called Project Ashes. Over the last year, I've been speaking to the people who are in charge of England's attempt to win down under. It's loud. They let you know that they don't like you. You've got to try and embrace it if you can. We're under no illusions in our last 10 tests for 9-0 down. England have only won once in Australia in the last 34 years. But could that change this winter? And in comes Pat Cummins from the far-ready. Bowls to Stokes who hammers it for four! I come up against this baggy green thing that they keep talking about

and I'd love to stick one of them. This is Project Ashes. Listen on BBC Sounds. Now, back to your podcast. You're listening to the TMS podcast from BBC Radio 5 Live. I'm Eleanor Aldroyd and welcome to another bonus TMS podcast. It's the second part in our series of Ashes Tour Tales from the TMS. Test Match Special Team here in Australia.

Don't forget, we're here bringing you full commentary from the 7th of December. Today we talk Brisbane as England prepared to begin the series at the Gabba. Well, welcome to Australia. The sun is out. The sea is lapping gently on the shore. The seagulls are flying around. We're sitting in the shade, of course. And we're all extremely excited about the cricket getting started in Brisbane.

And with us here, correspondent Jonathan Agnew, who is here on his ninth Ashes tour. Stephen Finn, who's been involved in three Ashes trips, including the last time England, one here 10 years ago. TMS commentator, Simon Mann, and to add historical and statistical background, Andy Zaltzman. Right, let's talk about Queensland, first of all. Let's talk about Brisbane. Let's talk about waking up in the morning, going down to breakfast in your hotel, the excitement of a day at the Gaba and picking up the local newspaper. Ager's the notorious courier male. What's it like?

I mean, their media can be particularly rough in Queensland. Well, it can. I mean, it just feels finally as if the day's arrived because under normal circumstances, of course, the tour have been going for perhaps a month beforehand, you know, starting off fairly quietly, a warm-up game in Perth and then maybe three first-class matches. And, of course, generally gaining momentum as you go.

Usually Perth, South Australia, and then that game in Hobart, usually. against someone like Australia A, who's obviously a very important game and lots of potential places up for grabs, perhaps, or whatever it might be. So it's the whole general build-up is that steady progression towards, yeah, the first day. And that first morning down there in the breakfast room in the hotel, inevitably there would normally be England fans packed in there, ready to go. They'd have been up where jet-lagged.

We've been up all night, some of them, and landed the night before, you know. and they're ready to go and then it is it's just that sort of culmination of the weeks of preparation all building up to finally getting underway

I think it's that sense of it's a clean slate as well it's nil-nill-nill that real build-up to the first day the first test what's going to happen and then of course it all goes horribly wrong often the case anyway it's been the case for England

but it is that is it what is going to happen how is the ashes going to turn out is it going to be different this time for England and think back to 2010-11 there was a sense it could be different this time and as it turned out it was what was it like arriving in Brisbane for that first test in 1011 then he did it did it was there a feeling did you have that feeling as well because you know the Australians will do everything to believe that the gabber is this extraordinary place the gabatoire yeah they take great pride in calling it that and making

your life uncomfortable I think Queensland is in general enjoy making it hostile when you come into Brisbane and you get that from the moment you get off the plane and the cameras are in your face when you step off the plane in Brisbane there's guys there accosting you, usually the big players so I was just hiding at the back thinking why are they shoving cameras in Kevin Peterson's face here and he's walking through the airport saying get out my face, get out my face

and it's just that hostility as soon as you get to Brisbane and that goes all the way to your journey to the ground there's you get guys like in cork hats banging on the team bus because they get there so early because they want to see the English team arrive and be there for when you get to the ground and yeah I remember quite vividly on some of those mornings where you're rolling up to the ground especially day one and the bus can't get through the bus has to like go down this concourse and parks under the stand but it's like this little private entrance and you have to go through all the fans to get there I remember vividly like the first morning

the bus got stuck and all of a sudden they're like banging on the window banging on welcome to the gabbatois boys and you're all sat in there and then the bus like knowing that you're playing a game in a couple of hours just being like yeah thanks thanks a lot guys so they would take great pleasure and great pride in that first test match

being a hostile environment and they're very good at it and that hostile environment was I mentioned the courier male Jonathan just tell us tell us about that because they particularly had it in for Stuart Broad didn't they cancelled him really I mean there was a team photograph up there I remember to put the back page he was just like a sort of silhouetted out of what this,

it was obviously Stuart Broad's shape and they just refused to mention him. They called, they listed the likely team and another fast bowler, which they would... It was 27-year-old medium post-bola. They refused to use the word broad.

And there were t-shirts going around, Stuart Broad's a sht bloke. People would be wearing that all around. I felt very, I mean, you know, I felt very sorry for... Apparently he's still got a coffee cup. He's got a coffee club cup which says Stuart Broad is a really shi-blot. Which he says he gets.

out just at the point for games when Australia are doing badly. Yeah, and he used that as motivation. He took five in that test match and I remember he had a copy of that newspaper in his place and he was like, if I take wickets here or I have a good day and I have to do the press, I'm taking this newspaper

and it was a picture of, yeah, it was that picture of just like he who must not be named like he's Lord Voldemore there on the front and he walked into the press conference I was there, the press conference. Yeah, he came out and there it was. And he was like that, he started reading it. But then afterwards they had They had to own him again after that, because he got five first.

And I think even the most grudging Australian realised that after all that build-up and everything actually, you know, he's come out and got five wickets. And remind us why they had it in for him. Well, it was because of what happened at Trent Bridge, where the Australian still insists that he nicked it to slip. But of course, he didn't. He feathered it through to the keeper who knocked it to slip. He took the catch.

It looked as though he thick-edged it to slip. He stood there, didn't walk, and it was given not out. And he got away with it. And that really riled the Australians. I find extraordinary, really. think of how few Australians have walked over the years. I'm Broad was just saying, well, I did thin edge, everyone saw he thin edged it actually when they saw the replay, thin edged it through to the keeper. But no self-respecting batter would have walked for that. But no Australian

would have walked for that. Not in that game situation either. And also, it was in the early forays of the DRS system. So people weren't used to standing or you didn't just stand and wait for the umpire to make a decision. Whereas now very, very few people would walk in that situation I think they'd just wait for the umpires to make the decision was that he knew he'd nicked it he's waiting for the umpire to give him out yeah yeah and then to walk off but of course the umpard didn't give him out and therefore he was stuck and they had no reviews left exactly and anyway the Australians have never forgotten it strangely enough i've got an article here actually from christopher door who was the courier mails editor and he talks about the sort of the buildup to

that sort of counselling of Stuart broad and he said our initial swipe at the brackets It's friendless Kevin Peterson as the English and South Africans arrived in Brisbane was a dress rehearsal to test the mood of the tourists for our assault on the real villain. He said, we had a thought about going after Joe Root, but he seemed unworthy and Ian Bell. But truthfully, despite his impressive figures in recent years, most of us can't take him seriously. He'll always be Shane Warns Bunny. So basically, it had to be Stuart Broad they went after after that incident at Trent Bridge. But Stewart's 6th for 81. He won back their respect in that test match.

They chose the wrong target by the sound of it for that one. It was very interesting. I mean, I think the first time that I went to the Gabba, I guess, four years ago, I thought, wow, I'm so exciting to be inside a big Australian test ground for the first time. You know, that was that. But then you look around and it's actually quite an underwhelming stadium. It's a horrible ground. Thank you saying that.

I don't want to get cancelled by the Australians. But it is. I mean, is it soulless. bowl, which is just exactly identical all the way around. I mean, there's mustard and yellow seats, and there is not a single feature you can't see beyond it. So from a commentator's perspective, even though you usually sit right at the very top,

you can hardly see anything outside. And it's not like a ground with different stands or anything, it's just a bowl. And it's a huge contrast of what it used to be. It used to be actually a really lovely cricket ground, although it did have a dog track that ran around it as well. so they ran dogs around dog racing but used to be able to walk around it

and the stands were separate and there was a really lovely area just to the right of where we would sit by the pavilion called the Queensland Cricketers Club and people sit on the grass under parasols drinking a beer or two or something like that and it was a much more relaxed atmosphere to it actually

but now it's a cauldron I mean even Melbourne the MCG has got more features to it than the Gabba which is just It's like this vast, vast bowl of noise. And I'm sure the atmosphere when you're in it must be incredible when it's full. It just echo around.

But anyone who's been, for instance, to the cakedin at Wellington, this is like a bigger version of that. So what's it like to play in? Yeah, I think one of the most apparent things is the heat inside. I think people talk about the humidity and the heat in Brisbane in general.

But once you're inside that ground and you're in the middle of it, everything is centred on you. and it just gets so hot and actually when it's hot like that it becomes hard to think and that's why talking about the acclimatization to Brisbane

that's why England would have chosen to have their build-up in Brisbane so they didn't have to move that's why in 2010-11 why England sent the bowling group there early in order to try and acclimatize and accustom themselves to those conditions so the one thing that you do really notice

as a player like the noise is by the by because you're used to playing in grounds that are noisy you play in India where it's just this wall of noise and that's a bit what it's like until you get really close to the boundary and then you can hear the people giving you your individual abuse but when you're in the middle of the ground

it's just noise but it is that heat that really just hits you and makes it really hard to concentrate which actually makes some of the guys' performances there over the years that innings that Cook, Trot and Strauss all scored the big runs it makes that feet even more impressive just for the whole situation

so Andy remind us of some of the stats around the gabber as a ground as far as England are concerned. Because it's not always been a picture of failure, has it? As Finney's just said. Not always. There have been 21 previous Ashes tests at the Gabba. England have won four and lost 12.

So it's not a great record, but it's not completely disastrous. And that, you know, in recent years, as England have struggled in basically all the Ashes series here, apart from the 10-11 series since the Mike Gatting tour in 86-7. Those stats have been skewed recently. If you look at those 16 victories, given illustration of the importance of Brisbane, which has generally been the first test on the series, 12 victories for Australia, four for England.

The winning team at Brisbane has gone on to win the ashes 14 of those 16 times, including the last 11 instances in a row since England came back from a Brisbane battering in 1954, 55. There haven't actually been that many close Ashes games at Brisbane. Of those 16 positive results, So there's only been one win by either five wickets or fewer or under 150 runs. And that was one of the most extraordinary games in Ash's history.

If we can delve back into the distant past, 1951, Australia, 228 all out on day one. Viewed by the press as an outstanding bowling performance by England. And then it rained in the days of uncovered pitches. There was a rest day and a day washed out. And England then had to bat on a treacherous rain-affected pitch, and as it dried under the sun, these pitches became almost unplayable. so then the next two innings were England 68 for 7 declared Australia 32 for 7 declared

teams as they declared to try and bowl while the pitch was still difficult and then England at the end of that that second day of play were six down for 30 and eventually all out for 122 so at 1.19 wickets fell for 81 runs which is all action well let's focus on the positive I mean Philly what are your memories of that That test match, that incredible second innings in 2010, Cook, Trot, Strauss, 517 for one.

Well, it's a perfect day for a bowler, that one, wasn't it? Well, it was, yeah. I spent a lot of my time sleeping underneath the concourse in the dressing room because the first innings, I watched the first four balls and Strauss got out off the fourth ball and I was like, well, I'm not watching any more balls of this test match because I'm the bad luck omen. So that's the way your mind works as a player. try and find a spot in the dress room where you don't lose wickets and mine happen to be with the other bowlers sleeping and just chilling out downstairs. Any excuse? Any excuse? Absolutely any

excuse. You pop up for the milestones so you go out there for the glory to clap the guys in on the so it looks like you've been watching the whole time but then the rest of the time you just disappear back down to the dressing room and rest and recuperate and bear in mind we'd spent a lot of overs in the field that game as well and the second test was coming around quickly so it was important that the guys did recover. That's my excuse anyway, for being down under there. But yeah, it was just sort of not disbelief, I think, because I believe that we could do it and I believe that those players could do it in that moment. But you do hear the stories about how at the Gabba, the Australians get on top and the opposition team fails. But my overriding sense of

that partnership, or those two partnerships and the way that that innings went, it gave everyone real confidence in the camp that we could actually stand toe to toe with these guys and then beat them and then we proved that in the second test match for somebody who did watch it then then what was it like to watch no i didn't watch it actually i was at home i was doing the last two tests of that series and then the one days but i do distinctly remember giving up on england and thinking there's no point there's no point listening to tmf through the night sorry for me giving up on there's no point listening to tms through the night but you know what it's like when there's an ashes match on i'm sure lots of listeners will have this feeling you you wake

at various times of the night and you try to judge by how the commentators talking what the score is if they don't give it initially and I think must have woken up about 4.30 in the morning I thought they're still batting what on earth's going on this is this is unprecedented remarkable so you know from a listener's point of view it's an incredible experience to wake up to that having not really given England much of a chance because there were 221 runs behind on first innings yeah they were they were going to lose the game because it was a logical they'd probably lose the game and be it was the gabber and it's all coming back and so on but it was remarkable from our perspective I turned up at the ABC box periodically during the day

and you've got a fair amount in there as well I mean the players think they get some stick like a promise you when I crawl into the ABC box and they're all chirpy and full of themselves and you know it could be pretty tricky being the only the only POM in there as well and of course at the start of that innings they they thought they're going to win too but then of course just like it does out on the field the volume goes down a bit and you could really feel the momentum

and the pitch was flat there's no wrong with the pitch you've got those three players who are all totally capable of playing innings like that and they did and the way to I mean to come away from that was often in a drawn game

one team actually takes a huge amount away from a draw the team that looked destined to lose if you don't lose it that's as good is a win. I remember going to Adelaide and we're checking into the hotel there and it's the first time I'd seen I think Cook since then and we had a chat in the lobby and that's a real

feeling of of achievement not in you know they got the way for the gabber with a draw but that's the way that they had done it and it really made a statement about what that England team was capable of doing. I mean other than that game since England had a fine win there in 86-7 with Ian Botham's

final test century the headline individual performance performance. In 1990, 91, England took a 42 run first innings lead and still managed to lose by 10 wickets. So it's been a pretty painful ground in various different ways. But that said, Australia is on a one-match losing streak at Brisbane, which might not sound like a lot, but they hadn't lost in their previous 31 tests at the ground between 1989 and they're lost to India at the start of this year. So perhaps some of that... third eleven wasn't I well and this we've talked about before that India did pretty much everything you're not supposed to do to win in Australia and still won including winning that what was the final test of that series at the Gabba and that's an interesting point as well Finney isn't it

the fact that you know this it's famous Tim Payne sledge to was it Richard Pant saying can't wait to get you to the Gabber mate and then they and then they lost will that play on their minds at all the members of the team who played in that test match. I think there'll be some uneasy people in general in this game. Cricketers as just creatures of habit, we don't like feeling or being underprepared. And there's going to be a lot of guys who are going to go into this test match, feeling rusty, not up to speed, not up to test match. Not battle hardened by the warm up games or any sort of competition. So I think players on both teams are going to be uneasy going into this first game, but also the mental

scars that that loss against India may still have on the Australian team, I think could certainly play into it. And England are going to have to use that to their advantage going into this first test match, I feel, in order to try and take advantage of that. We should also remember as well, Simon, you know, you talk about the fine margins in sport, don't you know, the things that, way that, you know, games, series can go one way or another. And I mean, James Vince, four years ago at the Gabba could have made it very different for England.

brilliantly run out by Nathan Lyon. It was just a fraction of an inch or whatever. A wonderful piece of fielding. Who knows, he could have gone on and got a big 100. Mind you, Davin Malin got a big 100 in Perth and didn't kick on. His test score is stalled, but he's back. So, you know, even if he got 100,

it's not no guarantee that he would have gone on to have a really successful career. But, you know, England had an opportunity in that match. It felt batting first. And at one stage, they got about 300. In Australia, were 200 for 7 and recovered. and it felt like England were on top. They've done quite well at some parts of Gabba test matches.

In 2013, they did well as well. Australia were 130 for six, and everyone was thinking, oh, here we go again, England on top. They're going to go on and win the series because they just come off the back of beating them in England. But then Mitchell Johnson, someone called Mitchell Johnson, got involved.

He had a pretty handy time of it. Wow, it was extraordinary, isn't it? So what are our other Gabba highlights, Simon? What about you? Well, my first test match at the Gabba was 94-5. And I distinctly remember that first ball from Phil De Freitas, which we've talked about a little bit, short outside the Ostum, cracked away by Slater, four runs.

It just felt, all right, you know, that build-up, we talked about at the start, and then it all sort of, it's nil-nil, then it all dissipates. But I remember on the final day, Glenn McGrae played in that test match, and it was his eighth test, and he'd done, sort of okay-ish. He'd taken his wickets at 38 so far.

There was no sort of real indication that he was going to be, you know, one of the greats of all time. He's obviously a very promising bowler. He was out for North. he didn't take a wicket in the match and I remember it was sort of the early days of the Barmy Army and Agu was talking about the redevelopment

of the ground there was a little hill and the England fans were there and they were chanting to Glenn McGraw you're the worst bowler in the world not a word of a lie you're the worst bowler in the world and Glenn's response it wasn't verbal but there were

one or two fingers involved in his response to the Barma and I think it's fair to say subsequently you know he did have his say didn't he He didn't actually bowl very well in that. No, he didn't. He didn't. He didn't. Yeah. And I remember Jim Maxwell had been on about this chap, Glenn McGrath. And I thought, okay, he's got a bit, you know, he's got a bit to go yet.

But, you know, he certainly made up for it. Not for 101 in the match. Yeah. And a duck as well. In his only innings. Yes. Well, I think occasionally, you know, you can be proved wrong. And the Barmy army conclusively were on that occasion.

Finney, do you have, I mean, you clearly have some good memories of the Gabba, but you must have some pretty tough memories as well. Yeah, I mean, I'm lucky. the only test match that I've played at the Gabba, but I took six for, although it was six for plenty, it still took six wickets. And we drew that test match. I mean, tours after that, the 13, 14 one was the tour that we lost 5-0.

I didn't play at the Gabba, missed out, and then had action problems and lost confidence in what I was doing. And the gabber was sort of the start of that. You go around chasing your tail and the lonely walk. It's a long walk as well from the dressing room up, like through the back of the stand so you don't have to walk past people and then out the back door and into those nets at the gabber you're sort of in a bowl with people looking at you and yeah the training sessions there by myself in that series weren't the most mentally freshening

memories that I have inside my head but yeah I've experienced them and and I went back there subsequently and took a fire for an odiet so I feel like I conquered those demons but Yeah, there are certainly some tricky memories there and I think that it is one of those grounds where it's quite easy to have vivid memories of it because it's such a unique place. I've mentioned Simon Jones yet either, have we? I mean, that horrendous injury.

Because that was that day one? Yes, it was. And it was like the turf just sort of rolled up. He was running back from mid-on. I remember I was commentating and he sort of slipped and skidded and one of those sort of almost dire flickbacks with all those things combined and it was just like a roll of turf just roll up underneath them and I mean as you could tell straight away that was a

really nasty nasty injury and again it was a terrible blow for him but an awful way for for the series to start it's one of the things we actually talked about before the test matches that we've played there is that the grass is real thatchy so in England they're like bowling lawns the outfields and it's but you can dive you can land on your knee however you want and generally unless it's really wet, your knee's not going to plug and you're not going to damage it. But the Simon Jones incident is something that we actually spoke about before the test matches that we've had there in the sense that the grass is real thatchy and your spikes plug in it, your knee, like everything

plugs in it. So they're like, if it's a borderline call of 50-50, leave it alone or find another way to stop it. Don't go diving on your knee because it is the sort of place where you can do yourself and damage. Can somebody remind Mark Wood of that? Yeah, to remind them all of it. We need to get this message out there. Don't dive. My last Gaba memory,

basically the last thing that happened at a Gaba test match was the Cameron Bancroft Press Conference at the end of the last game when Australia won the match by 10 wickets, Bancroft on debut, quite a successful debut made 82 and the second innings. And there were rumours, suddenly rumours around there.

Johnny Berstow had headbutted him. And what earth is going on? And then Bancroft comes to the press conference and tells the story. It didn't sound like a... a head butt at all. It was like a sort of bizarre sort of cutting together of heads in a it was almost like a friendly gesture. I mean you

I don't know, I've never heard of this before Finney. No, I wasn't there to be fair but it sounded to me like you know in two footballers like they want to act like they're hard and they're tough so they like go foreheads against each other but then they realize we're actually really not it sounded like one of those sorts of scenario.

I remember Cameron Bancroft saying yeah they've weighed my head and I've got the heaviest head in the Australian squad and Steve Smith sitting alongside him and falling about laughing it was bizarre a proper press story that though wasn't it it was a real beat up but i've never been to a press conference like that it was unbelievable everyone

it's absolutely packed room of australian english journalist and other journalists as well and people are utterly mesbred did he headbutt him or not and yeah you're right steve smith was laughing alongside him and then presumably joe root came in afterwards utterly sort of bemused by the whole thing

i don't remember if root been in before or afterwards but it was utterly surreal day that it really was But the bottom line was Australia crashed England by 10 wickets. And that's often what happens at the Gabba. It's such an important game. Absolutely.

Just a few months later, Smith and Bancroft was sitting having a press conference in Cape Town in rather different circumstances. Jonathan, I feel like we should finish on a kind of a light note on one of the most famous Queensland stories, if it's not Brisbane story. And that's David Gower and the Tiger Mar. Well, of course. Yes, it wasn't the Gabber, but it was on the Gold Coast, where England, of course, had been warming up for this. a place called Carrara and they were playing a first class match on, it's basically a rugby ground there

with floodlights up and so on and it was a nice, gentle, casual sort of a warm-up I seem to recall, not much going on a bit of a drive to get there and who was batting at the time we had Alan Lamb and Robin Smith were batting at the time one of them just got 100, Lambie I think

when suddenly I was sitting with Chris Martin Jenkins actually you could hear in the distance a sort of rumbling noise I thought wonder what that is And then, you know, they weren't going terribly fast because Tiger Moth don't. But these biplanes just going down over our heads, really quite low. And Lamb and Smith are both waving their bats. And the first one was followed by a second. And they sort of waggled their wings and disappeared away into the floodlights.

I remember CMJ say, what on earth is that or something? Sort of cursing. I thought that's rather strange. And I was working for the today newspaper at the time. And those days, a long time ago, but most newspapers had. a photographer actually attached to them if you like and mine was called Adrian Morel and he came to me during the next interval and said just between us I said I'll tell you who's in that aeroplane because I've got pictures it was Gower and Morris not really so I've been a very

naive young tabloid journalist I was in those days like oh grucky so I think it's my best story so I'm sitting there anxiously thinking about this all to myself you know is a bit of fun somehow it I mean I think Morell must have told someone else because anyway it got out more widely And at the end of the day, there was this, Simon mentioned this surreal press conference, I'll challenge him with this one, where Peter Lush came out, who was the manager, with Mickey Stewart. And I think it was Ian Todd from the Sun. He said, any thoughts, Peter on that fly pass there by David Gower and Morris? And there's an absolutely sort of blank face on Lush's face.

He had no idea. And I remember Mickey Stewart running out at the back. It was just like in a gymnasium. Shut up, anyone's seen Gower? This reply came back saying, he's gone for a. run manager, which of course is completely absurd. Gower never ran for anything. In fact, they were back at the airfield having more photographs taken because Graham Morris, another photographer, who people will know, needed to get the pictures or he'd be in trouble with his office for not

having the poster. So Gower and Morris actually back there staging up more photographs and all their Biggles equipment. And I mean, the best line of it all really was that Gower decided that he was going to go on this, hadn't got any money on him. So he approached Peter Lush. to say, could I also have a possibly afford on my expenses, please, manager, for the next couple of weeks or something. I'm a bit short. So Peter Lush handed over some money, which, of course, inadvertently,

he didn't realize he was actually paying for the flight. Bruce McGarvey was the name of the pilot. How about that? Someone who always forgets names. I'll never forget Bruce McGarvey, who, I remember the quote, said, yeah, David wanted to drop some water bombs on the pitch, but I told that it wouldn't be a very good idea.

Off they went. And sadly, the sad thing is that actually, Gower and Gouch really fell out badly. with that and it still sort of lingers in the background unfortunately because yours gower was fined it all felt a bit inappropriate yeah i don't know cricket is today just very boring yeah no character no character at all thank you everybody thank you finnie simon andy andy aggers the latest gabah ash's story is about to be told and we'll have it all for you commentary on the first test from 11 p.m on the evening of the 7th of december and i'll be

bringing you all the news on 5 live look out on this stream for more ash's tour tales and also don't Miss Project Ashes, the special series that Agass has done with exclusive behind-the-scenes access over the last 12 months. England bowler James Anderson brings all the news from the team on tail enders alongside Greg James and Felix White. Anne Mark Wood is among the guests you'll hear alongside Kate Cross and Alex Hartley on the No Balls podcast. That's also available on the TMS stream.

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