Following England’s spectacular rise to the top of the ICC World Rankings in the Test Championship table this year, it has to be regarded as perfect timing that details for the next three Ashes series have been announced this month.
Earlier this year, the ECB and Cricket Australia agreed that in order to facilitate the 2015 World Cup that is to be held in Australia and New Zealand, the schedule for the next three Ashes series would need to be amended. By changing the schedule it will also prevent England players from completing an Ashes tour and having to stay in Australia for the World Cup. The alternative would have meant that the vast majority of the England team would have had to stay in Australia for a total of five months. This past week, the revised schedule has now been confirmed:
2013 England will host Australia as per the original schedule with five tests taking place between July and September.
2013/14 Australia will bring forward their 2015 hosting role by two years in order to co-host the 2015 Cricket World Cup earlier in the year.
2015 England will host Australia bringing forward their original 2017 hosting role in order to prevent a long gap taking place between series.
The reason why these changes could be a huge bonus for England is simply because they are currently some way ahead of Australia at test match level and the new schedule, in theory at least, should keep them there. Moreover, if England continue to improve at their current rate, it is distinctly possible that England could go on a dominating five or six series winning run, providing much needed payback after Australia’s run of dominance throughout the 1990s and the early part of the 2000s.
Most of the current England team should still be around by 2015 while Australia are still in the process of rebuilding a new team and it has to be said that they are struggling. In the latest player rankings for instance, there are four English batsmen in the top ten, Alistair Cook and Ian Bell share second place, while Jonathan Trott is 7th and Kevin Pietersen 9th. Only Mike Hussey is in the top ten for Australia and he is 36 year old and very unlikely to play against England again in another Ashes series.
In the bowling rankings, England have three in the top ten, Jimmy Anderson at number two, Graeme Swann at number three and Stuart Broad at number four. Australia meanwhile are only represented by Mitchell Johnson who is ranked at number seven. What is even more intimidating for Australia is the fact that England have a further three bowlers, Chris Tremlett, Tim Bresnan and Steven Finn in the top twenty.
Even in wicket-keeping department, Matt Prior is emerging as the most gifted keeper/batsmen on the planet, who has improved out of all proportion behind the stumps and is now ranked at number 22 in the best batsmen rankings.
This all looks very promising for a rosy red English future in cricket terms and whilst some may complain that it smacks of an ‘Ashes Overkill’ most will savour the fact that the most exciting test series in the history of the game will be dominating the sport for the next four years and England look set to dominate…