Whose hopes, England's or Australia's will end up in ASHES?

Come Wednesday and the First of Five Test matches between traditional and bitter rivals England and Australia will be called to 'play' on Thursday at Trent Bridge,Nottingham and one can bet that from the first ball the atmosphere will be tense and the cricket played will be with no quarter asked or given.

After this series is over England will wing their way to Australia to play another Test series during the Australian summer and this time it has been tagged a back-to-back- series.When I was in England covering the International Cricket Council's Champions Trophy for the 'DAILY NEWS, 'SUNDAY OBSERVER' and 'THINKARAN', the atmosphere was pregnant with the feeling of the ASHES hotting up. England who was led by Andrew Strauss is the holders of the ASHES URN having thrashed the daylights out of Ricky Ponting's Australians last summer in Australia. Since then both Strauss and Ponting will be missed having retired.

Two new captains

The new captains will be Alastair Cook - England - and Michael Clarke- Australia. Both are young and aggressive leaders and have the knack of leading by example and from the front and getting the best out of each member of the team.

England, playing in their own backyard will be a tough nut to crack. True Twenty20 cricket is a different ball game. But when all England was expecting them to win that trophy, they crumbled and lost to India. And England has never won a 50-over tournament in 35 years of slogging and that loss should spur them and get the adrenalin flowing and make them determined to smack the Aussies. England have been preparing hard.

They have figured in practice games in an endeavor to lick their playing eleven into shape. Their big run shooting big guns - skipper, Ian Bell, Jonathon Trott, Kevin Petersenm and the young Joe Root are all in top form scoring runs and will be looking to give continuity to that form.

Other new ball bowlers

Of the new ball bowlers the one who should shine is right arm fast medium bowler James Anderson. Tipped to be the best ever England bowler when his career ends, Anderson will share the new cherry with Stuart Broad, with the gentle pace of Tim Bresnan and if he plays the wicket knocking over Stephen Finn for support.

England was jolted by the ball scratching or ball tampering allegations made by their former fast man Bob Willis during the Champions Trophy.

Willis alleged that it a done to gain unfair advantage and gain reverse swing. The allegation was made by Willis during the England- Sri Lanka Champions Trophy game at the Oval.

Frustrated by the treatment meted out by the Lankan batsmen who chased a massive 294 to win, they probably would have been forced to employ the -not cricket- tactic. As for Australia they are heaving a sigh of relief now that their energetic skipper Michael Clarke has shed his back injury and is fit to lead the Aussies to battle.

Clarke fit to play

Clarke underlined his fitness with a classic century against sauce county Worcestershire and that should give him the necessary confidence to wade into the England bowlers and put them to the sword. Shane 'Tarzan' Watson is expected to play a big role as opening batman and seam bowler.

He too tuned up with a century and he is expected to give the Aussies the platform to build on with big scores. The light will be turned towards new Australian coach Darren Lehmann.

The former Test batman has shown his credentials as a coach and it will be interesting to watch how he goes since taking over from South African Mickey Arthur who was sacked. Over the years Australia has shown their weakness against good off spin bowling, starting with late Jim Laker who bamboozled them in an Ashes series with 19 wickets. And this time round Graeme Swann is expected to do a Laker.

'Chokers' at battle soon

Sri Lankans and South Africa who have had the 'chokers' label slapped on them for entering semi-finals and finals and losing consistently, will lock horns here when they begin a 50-over and Twenty20 competition on July 20.

These two countries play like champions and enter semis and finals and when it comes to the crunch, they inexplicably lose their way and get knocked out. When they meet it will be interesting to watch who will continue with the 'chokers' label.

Led by Abraham de Villiers and Faa Du Plessis, South Africa have named formidable squads for both series and are determined to shed their 'chokers' tag and go back having won both competitions. But they will miss the express and frightening pace of Dale Steyn who has been rested to recover from a side strain and be fit for future tours. But his absence will be minimized with the return of Mornie Morkel.

Exciting performers

But they have some exciting performers in Quinton de Koch, Colin Ingram, Rory Kleinveldt, David Miller, Ryan McLaren and Lonwabo Tsotsobe. They have all proven class and will be worth watching. It is also interesting to note the return of leg spinner Imran Thahir for the Twenty20 series.

A tantalizing leg spinner with a variety of concealed deliveries, he will pose problems to the local batmen.

So the 5-match one day series and the 3 Twenty20 games will be chockfull of interesting and exciting cricket when the action begins at the R.Premadasa International Cricket Stadium on July 20.

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