For David Peacock, ‘The General’ of England’s Barmy Army, this winter’s Ashes which begins on Friday is the end of the road. Over 30 years after co-founding the now legendary fan group out of a Brisbane hostel on the 1994-95 tour, this series will be his eighth, and final, time following England’s cricket team Down Under.
And he won’t be alone – over 40,000 England fans are expected to descend on Australia this winter, in anticipation of the most eagerly-awaited series in recent memory.
The reasons for the hype are many. England’s previous tour, in the winter of 2021/22, was shattered by Covid, with no visiting fans allowed and a broken touring team limping to a 4-0 defeat. Now, with a record number of supporters in tow, England approach the series with the supercharged self-confidence that radiates endlessly (and many would argue foolishly) from the ‘Bazball’ leadership of Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum.
Facing them are a champion Australia team who, with an average age of 34 and troubled by injuries, are a fading force hoping for one last mighty triumph. Since 2013 England’s record in Australia looks like this: played 15, lost 13, won nil. Might that all be about to change?
‘It’s the ultimate cricket tour. It’s a dream come true and it’s on the bucket list if you love your sport,’ Peacock exclusively told TIBS News, the day before flying out to Perth last weekend in anticipation of the first Test match which begins this Friday at Optus Stadium.
Joining him out there will be thousands of England fans on their first visit to the country, an experience he knows well: ‘Your first tour is amazing because that’s your dream come true – everything’s new, everything’s exciting, you’ll meet mates who you’ll stay in touch with until today.’
David Peacock’s Ashes memories and thoughts for this tour
Peacock’s initiation to the Ashes came as a young 27-year-old solo backpacker in the winter of 1994/95. Following his ‘boyhood dream’ of watching the Ashes in Australia, he booked into a hostel close to the Gabba Stadium in Brisbane ahead of the first Test match.
‘Fortunately enough there were several other England fans who had travelled independently, all there to do the same thing,’ he reminisced.
Before long, the Barmy Army was born, and has gone from strength to strength since, with over 35,000 members and a surviving core group from those early days.
‘There’s 30 of us founder members. Sadly, we’ve lost a couple, but we’re still great mates 30 years on.’
Peacock has a word of warning for those on their first tour this time round. In the 1994/5 series, things did not begin auspiciously on the field: ‘We went to the ground on the first day buzzing with excitement. First ball was Phil DeFreitas to Michael Slater: outside off stump, bang, four runs. That was the first ball of my experience -320 for 2 at tea, I think.’
Indeed, first days on away Ashes tours have proved the stuff of nightmares in the past three decades. Think Nasser Hussain’s decision to bowl first in Brisbane in 2002, with Australia 364-2 at close of play; Steve Harmison’s first ball in 2006, which flew straight to Andrew Flintoff at second slip; and Rory Burns bowled out very first ball in 2021.
This time, however, there is hope that things have changed, symbolised by Zak Crawley cathartically slamming Australian captain Pat Cummins for four with the first ball of the 2023 Ashes back in England.
As Peacock says of the upcoming Perth test, for which Cummins and fellow Australian fast-bowler Josh Hazlewood have been ruled out with injury: ‘Suddenly Australia lose their two strike bowlers and you think, if we can get some runs, you’ve got to be hopeful.
‘If we were to win the first Test, you wouldn’t favour us in Brisbane in a day-night test, but you would fancy your chances at Adelaide and then hopefully you’re on for a repeat of 2010/11.’
It’s unsurprising that Peacock draws from that glorious victory under Andrew Strauss’ captaincy. England won the series 3-1 including victories by an innings in Adelaide, Melbourne, and Sydney, and that tour has been their sole success Down Under for almost 40 years.
Unlike that series, however, the England of today arrive more in hope than expectation. Strauss’ team was star-studded with some of England’s greatest-ever players: Sir Alastair Cook, Kevin Pietersen, Sir James Anderson and Graeme Swann.
England’s reasons for optimism
Ben Stokes and Joe Root have undoubtedly earned a spot alongside those names in the pantheon of England greats, but the rest of the current team is comparatively untested. As Mike Atherton noted in the Times earlier this week, many might be wondering what the fuss is all about. Under Stokes and McCullum, England have failed to reach the final of the World Test Championship in both 2023 and 2025. In addition, they are still yet to beat either India or Australia in a Test series under the ‘Bazball’ regime.
So why the optimism? For one, England arrive in Australia with a settled batting line-up, perhaps for the first time since that 2010/11 series. While many may question the quality of some of the members of the group, the line-up of opening pair Crawley and Ben Duckett, followed by a middle order of Ollie Pope, Root, Harry Brook, and Stokes has remained consistent for several years now and each of them has shown an ability to make big scores.
Secondly, England arrive with a potent (and, crucially, healthy) arsenal of fast bowlers. Jofra Archer, who is set to make his long-awaited Ashes return, Mark Wood, and Gus Atkinson have all proven themselves to be top quality bowlers alongside the golden arm of Stokes himself. That quartet is ably backed up by Brydon Carse, Matthew Potts and Josh Tongue.
Are Australia too old?
The main reason for hope, however, lies in the opposition. Australia’s team, on paper, remains formidable.
Top order batsmen Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Steve Smith and Travis Head have imposing records on home soil, while the famed bowling quartet of Cummins, Hazlewood, Mitchell Starc and Nathan Lyon have taken over 1500 test wickets between them. This generation has been a dominant force in world cricket for a decade now, but it is a truism in sport that time catches up to everyone.
Smith and Labuschagne remain well short of their Himalayan standards of the past; Hazlewood and Cummins are troubled by injury; while Khawaja and Lyon will turn 38 and 39, respectively, during the course of the series.
In the past England have arrived on Australian soil facing a well-settled side starring key players at the peak of their powers: for years it was Ricky Ponting, Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath – more recently, Smith and Cummins. The home side enters this series, however, at what seems to be the end of an era.
England must hope they are able to take advantage of the transition between new players, such as bowler Brendan Doggett and uncapped opener Jake Weatherald, and the aging veterans who have for so long tormented them.
England’s nightmare Ashes tour of 2021/22
There are many reasons for hope then, and perhaps driving much of the optimism is the chance to exorcise the demons of the nightmarish Covid tour of 2021/22, when players were confined to a two-week quarantine upon arrival in Australia.
As Root, captain on that tour, said last month: ‘It is a completely different set of circumstances for everyone involved on that tour. There are so many different things they don’t have to deal with now.’
Can Bazball torment Australia?
Root is certainly correct in that things will be different. On balance, the series odds still lie with Australia as the home side, particularly given England’s capacity for self-destruction under Stokes and McCullum – as seen in the final home test match of the summer, when they collapsed from 301-3 to 367 all out to allow India to level the series.
Unlike on previous tours to Australia, however, it is clear that England won’t die wondering, and as Atherton noted, the ‘Bazball’ style seems to have a particular talent for getting under the Australians’ skin.
A fascinating series awaits: the buccaneering visitors taking on the grizzled old veterans. Peacock, on his final ever tour, remains as excited as ever.
Is he worried that England might fail to live up to the hype and implode in spectacular fashion?
Positive to a fault, he plays the question with a straight bat: ‘It’s not the end of the world if we lose a cricket match. We’re lucky enough to be in some amazing places.’
