Ashes Diary

From Victory in India to the most dramatic Test series of the century

Plot

From triumph in India to heartbreak in The Ashes, the past year has been a time of constant ups and downs for the Australian cricket team. Throughout it all, their captain has documented his thoughts as the team has travelled abroad and stayed at home, faced the thrill of defeating old foes and the anguish of losing a precious trophy, to create this unique, definitive account: Ricky Ponting's Ashes Diary 2005.Beginning with Sri Lanka's Top End tour to Australia in June 2004, the Ashes Diary 2005 takes us through Ponting's stint playing county cricket for Somerset in England, as well as the Videocon Cup and ICC Champions Trophy. Ponting takes us behind the headlines for the Australians victorious Test tour of India, the tours of New Zealand and Pakistan in Australia, the Tsunami match, the VB Series with the West Indies and Pakistan, and the Test and one-day tour of New Zealand that also included the first Twenty20 international.But it was the Australians tour of England in the northern summer of 2005 that caused the most drama, and Ponting does not back down from discussing the failures in form that led to the loss of The Ashes. At the same time he reflects on the dramatic tie in the NatWest Series and victory in the NatWest Challenge, and pays tribute to the efforts of so many great players in his team.Out of this memorable year of cricket comes the ultimate insider's record of what went right, what went wrong, and why the Australian cricket team is still an almighty force to be reckoned with on the world stage.