Cherie Blair flirting with KP and Roy Keane slating the ‘Poms' – untold stories of 2005 Ashes

Telegraph

11 hours ago

It is perhaps England wicketkeeper Jamie Smith who best embodies the effect of the 2005 Ashes.
Smith was not brought up in a cricket-mad family but, captivated by a box-set of the series, a six-year-old Smith pestered his parents to take him to summer camp to try out the sport where he wielded his Kevin Pietersen bat that was several sizes too big.
Now a rising star, this winter he will taste Ashes cricket for the first time, all thanks to the 2005 legacy.
When Smith nets with England at Old Trafford on Monday, it will be 20 years since day one of the 2005 Ashes. Every player who appeared in the series has written a book or given interviews. But the anniversary is a chance to take a different approach; to hear from those behind the scenes. The kit man, physio, fitness trainer, coaches, an inventor and a young 12th man – who went from his local pub to standing at cover in a Test – are among those who share their memories with Telegraph Sport, shedding new light on that most captivating of summers.
The build-up
Australia played 15 matches before the first Test, losing to Somerset and Bangladesh. Andrew Symonds was disciplined for drinking and bizarre off-field events hampered preparation.
Trevor Crouch (Australia team kit manager): 'There was a tour game at Leicester with a dozy steward on the door. They were loading the bus and there were loads of supporters hanging round. Some drunken Australian supporters nicked the players' gear. Pup [Michael Clarke] lost all his bats. If ever there was someone you didn't want that to happen to it was Pup.'
John Buchanan (Australia coach): 'We stayed at Lumley Castle for a game at Durham. It was a lovely spot but supposedly haunted. One or two of the guys acted as a ghost to scare Shane Watson, or whether there was a real ghost I don't know. His room-mate later said they never wanted to share with Shane again.'
Crouch: 'Lumley Castle is a horrible place to stay. The players were asking if it was haunted. Then, bugger me, two days later Watson moved into Brett Lee's room because he was scared. I heard him in reception, I will never forget this big sportsman towering over the receptionist and saying: 'My room is haunted, I had to sleep on the floor of my mate's room.' The ironic thing was he ended up in the room that was supposed to be haunted but nobody told him. They also had a press officer who instead of killing the story, said she had seen ghosts and it all kicked off.'
The Aussies walked the half-mile from the hotel to the ground. Walking back up the hill to Lumley Castle somebody jumped out of the bushes to scare them. It was a reporter from one of the papers. He nearly got knocked out.
London bombings
On July 7 England played Australia in an ODI at Headingley when news filtered through about the bombings on the London Underground. The Australian families were arriving in London that day. At one stage, the tour was threatened.
Steve Bernard (Australia team manager): 'I got a phone call at Headingley to say this has happened, don't come down to London. After a quick chat with security we decided we would drive down to London that night. It was an eerie experience driving to the Royal Garden Hotel in Kensington. There was not a vehicle on the road. It was a ghost town, and had a profound effect on us. They [the players] were nervous.'
Crouch: ' Some of the players were very worried. The families were coming over and they were staying in the heart of London, and were vulnerable but safety in numbers helped. Remember, this was before the IPL and players having money or power.'
First Test
The Lord's Test was over quickly. Australia won by 239 runs but the result covered the cracks in the team.
Kirk Russell (England physio): 'I would say 'good morning' to Ricky Ponting every day and I would get nothing back. Just silence. I always found that really weird. Perhaps he thought it was showing weakness to say hello to a physio.'
Nigel Stockill (England strength and conditioning coach): 'The Australians started a childish turf war before play every morning. It cost them in the end.'
Russell: 'Fletch [Duncan Fletcher, the England head coach] had got word that Australia would warm up where we normally warm up on the outfield at Lord's. We got there before 8am and sure enough they had been in and laid their cones out. By the time the guys wanted to bowl, the Aussies were out warming up close to the wicket. Ashley Giles wanted a bowl. I would take a mitt and Ash said politely to the Aussies 'can you just move a bit because we want to bowl?' Fair to say their response was not 'good morning, yes of course'. It was basically 'f--- you'. Anyway it was the most high-pressure mitting experience I ever had because I had a couple of the Aussie guys by my feet. The fun and games started early on.'
Bernard: 'At the end of the match we sang the team song and our guys had a few too many drinks, and this was the only time this happened in my time, we went to the England dressing room to do the team song. I was not comfortable with that. We got out of Lord's late and as one of our players got on the bus he leant on the horn, gave it a celebratory blast. Our driver was not happy because he got a fine of a couple of hundred quid for disturbing the peace. On the last afternoon I went over to the Lord's shop and bought 25 prints of the ground to hand to everyone. Because [Glenn] McGrath was man of the match, I asked him to sign it. He wrote: 'Glenn McGrath, man of the match 1997, 2001, 2005.' He played three Tests and was man of the match in each. I kept that one.'
Crouch: ' The only two guys who came in the Australian dressing room for a drink were Pietersen and Geraint Jones – the two non-English. McGrath owned Lord's but before the series I took him to see a knee specialist in Wimbledon. I don't think he was right the whole series.'
Second Test
The second Test at Edgbaston was one of the greatest of all time, England winning by two runs. McGrath trod on a ball, Ponting opted to bat and the rest is history.
Matthew Maynard (England batting coach): 'After Lord's I gave the players a DVD of the Ricky Hatton-Kostya Tszyu fight because I thought it would reflect the series and give them inspiration. Kostya Tszyu was hammering Hatton, Hatton came back, then Tszyu came back before Hatton won. Tszyu was fighting as an Aussie too. It was England v Australia in boxing parlance.'
Stockill: 'When we went to Edgbaston, they decided they would have our side of the pitch to train on again. Buchanan put balls out to mark their territory rather than plastic cones. It was one of those balls that McGrath stood on. There is a bit of karma there. They tried to upset the balance of things and if ever there was a backfire, that was it.'
Russell: 'I have done hundreds of games and since then I have always put the balls away. It is something that has always stayed with me.'
Bernard: 'When Glenn trod on the ball, he went down in a screaming heap. I was told later that some young Aussie blokes had got to the ground early and saw it happen. They raced off to the betting tent and had a bet McGrath wouldn't take a wicket and apparently had a good win.'
Australia decided to bowl first despite the loss of McGrath. England made 407 on day one.
Stockill: 'I remember Shane Warne kicking off at Ponting for the toss. He was properly vocal in the dressing room. We couldn't believe it, he was going mad. 'What are you doing?' There were a lot of WTFs going on.'
Bernard: 'Best I don't comment on the toss.'
On the last day Australia needed 108 to win, with two wickets in hand.
Russell: 'I remember Warne giving us so much grief. He was childish. 'You're going to lose' that kind of thing. Then when we won, I remember I wanted to shake his hand and look him in the eye because he gave us so much s---.'
Maynard: 'All the Aussies were sat there, not shifting their position whereas we were moving from dressing room to dining room, anything to will a wicket. Silly cricket superstitions.'
Russell: 'Fred [Flintoff] was in tears at the end. He was exhausted. I thought, 'wow, he really has come of age'. I never saw that before or again. He gave everything. That night we ended up in the Walkabout bar. Quite ironic (Joe Root was punched there a few years later by David Warner).'
Third Test
The third Test was at Old Trafford. It was now that England had a secret weapon to take on Warne – the Merlyn spin-bowling machine invented by Henry Pryor on his farm near Hay-on-Wye.
Maynard: 'Yes it made a difference. The big moment was prior to Old Trafford. At Edgbaston, [Andrew] Strauss tried to kick Warney away and was bowled by that big turning ball. I had spoken to him about staying a bit more leg side to Warne. He got it. Strauss and Tres [Marcus Trescothick] would use Merlyn a lot.'
Henry Pryor: 'I would drive around the country with this thing in a horse box, taking it from Test to Test. I had been working on it for years. In 2005 I knew Warne was coming and I thought the England team should have a means for practising to face him. Several of them were very complimentary.'
Before the third Test Australia were caught up in a row with, of all people, Sir Alex Ferguson.
Bernard: 'Our coach driver used to work for Manchester United and he got us an invite to their training ground. Roy Keane walked past at one stage and said 'make sure you beat those effing Poms'. There was talk in the papers about Michael Owen coming to play for United. We were talking to Sir Alex and he said 'any questions'. I said I'd been reading about Owen going to United. He basically said it wouldn't happen. Unfortunately our coach [Buchanan] is there and he was writing a column for a newspaper. This was something in-house, not to be spoken about but he put it all in his column. I was mortified.'
'I rang up Sir Alex's secretary. She couldn't get him. I just wanted to apologise and said anything I can do to make up for it, let me know. She rang back and said he would like two tickets for his son. Remember there were people queueing for hours to get in. Tickets were like gold nuggets at the bottom of the garden even for us. On day five Sir Alex was there and interviewed. He was asked 'I believe you are going to the Australian rooms'. He said there had been an issue and he wouldn't be going. He hadn't forgiven us. I've never spoken to Alex since.'
The match ended in a draw, last man McGrath blocking out the final over.
Crouch: 'Pup [Michael Clarke] had a back spasm and went back to the hotel. Suddenly I had to go and get him because he had to bat. I had this great big white transit van and this bloke has a bad back. Poor Pup had to clamber in this big van with his stiff back and feel every bump. It was hardly VIP treatment for sportsmen playing at the highest level.
Daryl Mitchell (England 12th man): 'I got on at short cover when Flintoff had [Adam] Gilchrist caught in the gully. What a moment to be on the field. I remember Strauss got a hundred in the second innings and I was earwigging on the balcony as he spoke to Fletcher. I was amazed he had just got an Ashes hundred with a cut on his ear but he was so level. Things are never as good or as bad as they seem and I remember taking that on in my career. For contrast, KP was out first ball and carrying on like he had scored 150.'
Bernard: 'I remember vividly watching McGrath bat. He had decided to take lbw out of the equation and was standing a foot outside his crease. And about the second-last over he played a ball to cover and didn't move back in his crease. The ball was thrown to the keeper who just threw the ball back to mid-off. We were screaming at McGrath to get back. Dare I say it, it was a Jonny Bairstow moment. They would have been within their rights to take off the bails, match over and England win.'
Mitchell: 'After the draw there was a big speech about the Aussies celebrating a draw. The chat was 'which Aussie player do you dislike the most?' Imagine yourself grabbing them by the b------s and squeezing them as tight as you can because that is where we have them now. I reckon Matt Hayden was quite high on the list. I sat on the balcony afterwards and there was a photo taken of [Michael} Vaughany and Fletcher and me stood next to them looking over Old Trafford. It was in the papers. I was working part-time at the local pub in my village, the Round of Gras. That photo was framed and put above the bar. It looked like I was part of the brains trust.'
Stockill: 'KP was now getting a bit more confident and some of the other guys were not ready for that. Fred was feeling a bit threatened that he was getting knocked off his golden-boy perch, which is totally un-Fred like because he never gave that off in his public persona but I think personally he found it a bit difficult.'
Fourth Test
The series moved to Trent Bridge. England won to go 2-1 up.
Crouch: ' At Nottingham I had to take Warney to his hair [transplant] place in the transit. He sat at the front with McGrath. Poor old Pup, with his bad back, had to sit in the back. McGrath was saying go faster, they were like little kids wanting to throw him around.'
Stockill: 'I was right behind Fletch when Ponting came off when he was run out by Gary Pratt. He was effing at Fletch. At one point I realised I was on camera because I was giving as much back. I think I said 'Show some class you f------ whatever'. I got a bit carried away. Fletch was loving it. Ponting was ticking. The way Trent Bridge works (England dressing room is on top of the away dressing room) we could hear Ponting clattering around, throwing stuff and making all sorts of noise.'
Buchanan: 'If you bring in a 12th man from outside what are you doing it for? Was that in the spirit of cricket? Depends where you sit.'
Russell: 'When we were chasing that small target [129 runs], I massaged one player after the other because none wanted to watch. We had 129 empty cups in the room and knocked one off for every run. When we won Vaughany was standing next to me on the balcony and hugged me and we fell over, which was not very dignified. There is some footage and we just disappear.'
Now, plans were being hatched for an open-top bus parade.
Colin Gibson (ECB head of communications): 'Remember this was after 7/7. The Mayor's office were keen to show London was open for business. It was after Trent Bridge we started to talk about 'Operation Victory'. Duncan was adamant the players should not know about it.'
The fifth Test
England drew at the Oval, Pietersen made his name and the nation came to a standstill.
Pryor: 'I arrived at the Oval with Merlyn in the back of the horse box. You can't bring horses in 'ere' I was told by the gateman.'
Maynard: 'KP was a bit jittery at lunchtime asking how he should play. I said score runs, not bat time. He was not playing his way. I loved working with KP. He had one of the best work ethics of any player but someone said 'if you give KP a piece of rope make sure that rope is short, because if not he ends up hanging himself'. Probably right.
Bernard: 'In our room on the last day was Ron Howard – Ritchie Cunningham from Happy Days. He was there because Errol our physio had worked with him through Russell Crowe on a movie. Ron was coming to London to make a movie. What I remember was he knew nothing about cricket but the broadcasters had a camera that took 2,000 frames a second. There would be this slow-motion ballet-like thing with the guy moving slowly to take a catch. Ron just watched the replays in the room.'
Buchanan: 'I made some poor strategic coaching calls through the series and I allowed myself to be distracted by crowds and results which I had not beforehand. In doing that you make poor decisions.'
Gibson: 'The parade bus had to have NPower [the Test sponsor] branding. It was in a garage near Watford and it was in and out of the garage every half-hour for the branding to be started then stopped because we didn't know what the result would be.'
Stockill: 'The umpires came in and told us they were going to call the game off. We all had to keep quiet because it had not been announced officially. When they dropped the bails, everyone went mad.'
Russell: 'I was always annoyed the Aussies didn't come to our dressing room at the Oval for a drink, we went to theirs. I thought, really? They should be coming to ours. Strange.'
Bernard: 'Losing sides don't hang around long. Ethos is if you win, you deserve to celebrate, if you lose, you don't. We had seen enough.'
The party
The celebrations went through the night and into the following day with an open-top bus parade and trip to 10 Downing Street.
Russell: 'On the ticker-tape bus I had great delight in winding up KP because we had the crystal replica of the Ashes urn. In my life it was the only time I was ever going to lift a trophy and people were going to cheer because they thought I was a player. I kept doing that and Kevin kept grabbing it off me.'
Gibson: 'I arrived at the team hotel at 5.30am and a famous all-rounder was still in the bar. We had to help them on to a bus to Mansion House. Elton John sent a case of champagne to help them celebrate. Not sure they needed topping up. Someone described them by saying they were 'over-hydrated'.'
Stockill: 'When we got to Downing Street the boys were half-hammered. We'd had a few on the bus. We get into the garden and there was one table with a tablecloth on it and a jug of water with 12 glasses. I said to someone you might need to up your game on the drinks. Then they rustled out a box of warm Beck's. Hmm you're still not cutting it. Anyway they did finally bring stuff in. It was incredible. It reflected the Prime Minister of the time not being a cricket follower and doing it out of a sense of duty or political points. Imagine if it had been the football team. They would have put on a full spread.'
Russell: 'I reckon Cherie Blair had had a few before we arrived. She was quite flirtatious.'
Stockill: ' KP was chit-chatting. I wouldn't say flirting, but there was a bit going on with Cherie. She was saying 'you boys, behave yourselves' as she was fluttering around the garden. KP went 'Tell me Nige, who the f--- is that?''
Russell: 'It was incredible really. Something you never experience again. I remember getting drenched later that night with champagne in a nightclub. A whole bottle was poured over my head by KP.'
It was later said one of the players urinated in the garden. A wall of silence persists 20 years on.
Maynard: 'I didn't see anyone urinate in the garden.'
Russell: 'I don't think that happened.'
Stockill: 'As a physiologist I can categorically state that everyone was so dehydrated from the previous evening's revelry that I doubt anyone was hydrated enough to wee for at least 48 hours post-victory.'
An Ashes series (and an open-top bus tour) that will never be forgotten!
Twenty years on from one the most iconic summers in English cricketing history, How To Win The Ashes 2005 on BBC iPlayer takes a deep dive into one of sport's fiercest rivalries. #BBCCricket pic.twitter.com/3KAOUJZnf5
— BBC Sport (@BBCSport) July 18, 2025