Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ

I have emailed and written to the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ numerous times without reply.
They missed a trick in 2005. I just hope they don't make the same mistake again.

Please show the brilliant 'Bodyline' series again.
As far as I recall, it hasn't been repeated since its original showing.

In 1981, I was six, and learning to score for my dad's cricket team, the Unpredictables, which played on Sunday afternoons in South London.
I was also an increasingly devoted Ian Botham fan.
The Sunday of the Edgbaston test proved all too much.
As I watched my dad's team from the sidelines, pencilling in the scores, we had TMS on the radio at the same time.
When Botham suddenly started storming through the Australian lower order at the same time as a mid-innings collapse in south London, I couldn't cope with the complications of filling in the scorebook at the same time. To this day, the scorebook records that a certain Botham, in increasingly hysterical pencilled letters, unaccountably picked up a clutch of wickets for the Unpredictables that day, despite never playing for the team.
Thankfully, the opposition scorer, a kindly woman, seemed to keep things in order though I have no real memory of the match, in contrast with the Edgbaston Test which is preserved in Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ celluloid.

I'm only 18 and so will be interested to see as I have only seriously watched cricket since the 2001 ashes

I'd like to echo that call to repeat the Bodyline series again, it really was superb

Thanks for the great memories. I was 3, almost 4, years old, when England won the ashes back in 1981 so have no memories of it.

In the coming ashes memories programmes I hope you talk to as few people as possible and simply play as much archive commentary from TMS a you can. Just let the commentators do the talking and allow us to relive the history.

I remember the 2005 ashes. I had tickets for Saturday of the Lords test but due to heavy rain and recovering from being in hospital, I took my parents advice and did not travel up to Lords. Late in the day it dried up and they were able to play 25 overs. I got no refund. On a more positive note though I was getting a train back to Surrey on the 4th day of the Edgbaston test and had to change trains on route. Australia needed very few runs to win but were down to their last wicket.

Every tunnel I went through, where I lost reception, I just hoped that Australia didn't get the runs or England get the wicket. It was really exciting and thankfully it didn't happen. On reaching Gatwick I rush down the platform to get a spot with good reception and the next moment England got the wicket they needed, with Australia losing by 2 runs. That was the match which helped England to win the series and one train journey I won't forget.

A couple of memories stand out for me:

1 For Leeds when my boss , who was leaving the company, abandoned all pretence of work and went and sat in his company car in the car park switched on the radio and listened to the end of the match. Car reg? ALK 235S !

@ The Saturday of the Old Trafford game- I took my toddler daughter for a short swim at the indoor pool. Botham had just come in as I switched off the radio for us to start swimming. When we came out I could not believe the commentator describing his century!

Your blog revived memories of that wonderful series when Test Match cricket was respected and watched around the world. In those days we could watch it all day on the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ on the telly, and we often did.

So why oh why has Jonathan Agnew decided to sound enthusiastic about 20/20, a simply appalling burlesque of the once great game? It's a disgrace, it really is.

What would Sir Learie Constantinople, or Jim Arlott have to say about the current Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Cricket correspondent's failure to stand firm over the issue?

He should go, and go now. I'd resign if I were Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ cricket correspondent. It would be the only way forward.

Leave Johnathan Agnew alone, suggesting he should resign is ludicrous. There is nothing wrong with 20\20 - it is nothing more than a variation of the game. No doubt, L A OCIDEAN dreams of : 2\3 initials to denote amateurs\gentlemen on the teamsheet, separate changing rooms for professionals, OXBRIDGE captains, Test matches with no play on a Sunday and a start time at Lords of 11:30 so the chaps can get the steam train from Winchester and arrive in good time to see the start of play. Johnathan Agnew has always been prepared to voice concerns over issues in the game when he has felt the need to even when he has appeared to be out of step with the various governing bodies of the game or the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ. It is you L A OCIDEAN who should go and go now before you embarrass yourself any further.

I have given this subject some thought overnight, and I am distressed by the huge outcry that my demand for Agnew's resignation has caused.
Perhaps I went a little too far ... Agnew is not personally responsible for 20/20 cricket and I now feel he should remain in his post.

But the fact remains that the deplorable spectacle of cricketers slogging at virtually every ball, dancing girls, popular music combos blaring out 'music', and transvestite spectators chanting like a football crowd, has taken Lords to the depths of depravity that would have Sir Colin Cowadry spinning in his grave.

I remember 1981 well; and for me, despite the excitment of four years ago, the 1981 series is STILL the greatest Ashes series. Apart from the obvious thrills and spills of big-hitting and fast-bowling, there was a far more subtle sub-plot as well.

Bodyline was a great series. Very Australian and historically flawed, but still bring it back!!!!
As for 1981, I was on holiday on the Kent coast when England turn defeat in to Victory. Whenever I smell the sea air mixed with fish & chips I think of 'Bothams' Ashes.

twenty20 cricket is proper cricket, end of story.
it is just a shortened version of the game to try and appeal to the younger generation, myself included.
It should not, and never will be allowed, to displace test cricket, but it is just a shorterned version.
I for one have thoroughly enjoyed the tournament so far, and anyone other than indian fans would have been mesmerized by the england game last night.

yes, please for 'Bodyline' again :o)

I was 15 in '81 and have plenty of happy memories of The Ashes and that almost totally carefree time of my life, but enough of such nonsense. It made me laugh though when, in '05 Rodney Marsh was talking on TMS and gave an account of upon hearing the 500/1 price at the bookies, some, or all, I can't exactly remember, of the Australian team put a few quid on England. They didn't remember until a day or so later. He never said how much they won. If there's a petition going, put my name down for Bodyline, too

1981 and Headingly very special memories indeed.

18 year-old apprentice working in a factory. Literally the whole 120-employee shopfloor were listening to TMS and the massive cheers at the fall of every Aussie wicket.

Memories of 85 were a scratch Australian side stripped of all their best players. Kim Hughes's infamous rebel South African 84 adventure taking with him Alderman, Rackerman, Hogg, Dyson, Smith, McGuire, Hohns, Rixon... most of whom were never to play for Australia again. Gooch, Robinson, Gower etc... cashed in accordingly.