We’ve already had the first exchanges of chippiness and the start of the actual cricket now cannot come soon enough
The Ashes series is go. Sort of. Kind of. The Ashes series is confirmed as long as various requirements are met when it comes to quarantining and playing in Australia. Which is effectively the same position that the England & Wales Cricket Board has been taking for the last few months, before Friday’s statement officially conveying the above. The important thing is that now they have said they actually will be going to Australia. Unless later they decide they are not. In which case they will say that they are not. Crowds are warmly invited to book tickets on this basis.
We can tell that an Ashes series is imminent, though, because like the first reddening leaves of autumn tell the season, there are the first exchanges of chippiness from prominent names over airwaves and online platforms. Tim Paine and Nathan Lyon have huffed on radio at England’s prevarication. English commentators have rolled out their disdain for Paine as not a proper cricketer.
