The Ashes - England V Australia 2005 (3 DVDs)

Cricket is one of my greatest passions in life. I have been a fan for years, and have lived through the highs and lows of each test series with the England squad. Every time the Ashes came around I always looked forward to a master class by one of the greatest cricketing forces the world has known….and England played too. That was until the spectacularly gripping series of 2005, commemorated on this DVD, when England regained the little brown urn for the first time in 18 years. The Packaging The set comprises of three DVDs encapsulated in an ungainly blue and white box, featuring the victorious England captain holding the urn on the front. ...  Read the complete review

2005 was a great year for British sport. An English football club won the Champions League, Wales won the Six Nations and of course, England finally beat Australia to win the Ashes. Although played throughout the country, cricket isn't as popular a sport as football on these shores, and for many years England had suffered wretchedly in the game. Often mocked by the press for losing to opponents they would once have brushed aside with ease, the England team had been getting used to losing, particularly against Australia. England hadn't beaten them in a Test series since 1987. Then a few years ago, England installed a new coach, Zimbabwean Duncan ...  Read the complete review

Who can ever forget the magnificent 2005 Ashes series. The Australians came into the series having held the Ashes since 1987, could England finally release their grip this time round. England were full of confidence going into the series on the back of their winter success in South Africa and had skittled the Australians out for under a hundred in the recent Twenty-20 match. This Australian team was not going to lie down though. Posessing stars like Warne, McGrath, Gilchrist and Ponting, this was going to be a tough test for the English Lions. This DVD captures all the main actual as caught by the Channel 5 camera, key interviews and clips that were not ...  Read the complete review

Sadly, watching this is an effort. Cricket works better when viewed over five days because condensing all the best bits from 25 days of play into 9 hours is like watching 1000 greatest goals one after the other. Overall it is very entertaining and brings back memories of a historic summer, just don’t expect to be able to sit through it all in one go. Cricket is a slow sport. Half the time nowt happens as the bowler is walking back to his mark or making his run up. Test match cricket is slow. 30 balls may go by where nothing happens other than the batsman blocking the ball or leaving it for the wicket keeper. This is also the beauty of it, like a football match ...  Read the complete review

The greatest ever Test Series bar none. The 2005 series between England and Australia was one of the closest, most keenly contested set of contests in the history of cricket. Having endured eighteen years of suffering at the hands of several ruthless Australian units, despite all the hype and hope of the nation it was still difficult to envisage an England series win. From a personal point of view this series will live with me forever irrespective of the ineptitude of past, present and future England teams because for one fine series, those three lions roared greater than a mighty foe. This DVD was bought for me after the series and to be frank, I ...  Read the complete review