Ashes 2010 - Dull or exciting ?

[Adarsh]

How do you rate the Ashes this year ? Did you enjoy the Aussie drubbing or did you feel let down by the lack of competition ?

Four walkovers and a stalemate. This has been the dullest Ashes series in living memory and still it goes on. I feel like a tourist whose long-awaited dream holiday has turned into a nightmare, trapped in a dingy hotel above a 24-hour Barmy Army karaoke bar, suffering from ear-ache and chronic disillusionment and counting the days until it is all over. It has been the triumph of the competent over the shambolic. England have done well, no doubt, but they play cricket like Oliver Cromwell might have done, if he hadn?t thought it the devil?s work. It?s been so dull that even Paul Collingwood has had enough.

And throughout, there has been the insistent drumbeat of patriotic bias, as welcome in the commentary booth as a nest of scorpions in your biscuit jar. Chief cheerleader is Ian Botham. Listening to his gratingly one-sided contributions is like being hit on the head repeatedly by a white and red inflatable hammer. When Phil Hughes half-heartedly claimed a catch today, Beefy exploded. Clearly, Hughes was a cheat. A lesser man might have reflected on some of the other examples of sharp practice in recent years, from the unorthodox use of Murray Mints in 2005 to Strauss?s ?catch? at Lord?s in 2009. But not Beefy. This is the Ashes. It?s us and them. If you?re not with us, you?re against us. God Save the Queen! Pass the earplugs.

 

[harrisb]

It depends what country you're from, as an England fan i think it's been a great series.

 

[ChefMan21]

As an Aussie fan it's been a great series. We were outplayed the entire series and it was shattering to lose. But we got to see a group of guys at the top of their games play some outstanding cricket. And they got to take us down a peg or two. That's a good thing for cricket I have to say. Well done England!

 

[barmyarmy]

Is Andrew Hughes, Phil Hughes' dad?
I agree about no close tests but England winning in Aus for the first time since some of us were just starting school is excitement enough.

 

[Papa_Smurf]

Except for the 1st and 3rd test, it was a boring series for a neutral.

Exciting result for England though

 

[ZoraxDoom]

I am a Neutral, and I found the utter destruction and humiliation of Australia awesome.

Nothing personal against Aussies, it's just that...after seeing so many sides I supported being crushed, dominated and destroyed; after having my heart broken so many times (2003 WC Final anyone?), seeing Australia being on the receiving end of the kind of beatings they used to deal out was so...cathartic.

And I loved every sadistic moment of it.

 

[Lee1981]

England destroying the aussies, is all good to me.

Wish there was a couple more tests still, just to crush them further into ground.

 

[War]

I support both ENG & AUS. So for me its a bit of mixed emotions every test obviously. Excited for ENG one minute - but horribly disappointed & irritated by AUS.

But yea the series of cricket was a bit boring when it came to judging the cricket at the end of the day. I expected a hard slog on the same level of the 2005 Ashes, but it wasn't.

 

[pcfan123]

The Ashes are always exciting. It's the premiere event of Test cricket.

 

[CortezTheKiller]

It did produce some excellent cricket (mostly from England, but Messers Hussey, Harris & Haddin all leave with their reputations enhanced too) with some very exciting passages of play (the first session at Adelaide, Johnson finding his mojo at Perth and running through our middle order, the whole first day of the Boxing Day test) but as a contest it doesn't quite match up to 2005 or 2009.

Not complaining tho, like, we've had our arses handed to us far too often in the last 24 years. In fact we've won as many tests this series as we had in total in each Ashes tour combined since 86/7.

 

[Dr. Pepper]

I think we've been spoilt with two brilliant series in recent years, so anything else will seem slightly boring. I think it was a great series in its own right though as it was the final nail in the coffin of the domination of Australian cricket.

 

[Brook]

I am a Neutral, and I found the utter destruction and humiliation of Australia awesome.

Nothing personal against Aussies, it's just that...after seeing so many sides I supported being crushed, dominated and destroyed; after having my heart broken so many times (2003 WC Final anyone?), seeing Australia being on the receiving end of the kind of beatings they used to deal out was so...cathartic.

And I loved every sadistic moment of it.

That doesn't sound very neutral :P

 

[ZoraxDoom]

Hmm...I guess it doesn't.

 

[shravi]

Didn't really enjoy the first test that much except for the first day but other than that, I thought it was fantastic.

 

[Papa_Smurf]

I don't know - I guess after the all build-up and excitement, I was expecting a more closely-fought series. It will, and rightly so, go down as a classic in the history books for what it means to world cricket, but the cricket itself could've been more competitive.