Ashes win means everything

15 September 2005

In his sixth and final Ashes diary exclusive on ecb.co.uk, Ashley Giles reveals his nerves at batting on the last day of the series and his joy at fulfilling a childhood dream.

It’s slowly starting to sink in what we’ve achieved by winning the Ashes. I was driving back from the celebrations in London and every now and again a smile appeared on my face and I started grinning.

I keep telling myself that we won the Ashes and it’s pretty special.

It means everything. It’s what I wanted to do since I was a kid - play for England, play against the Aussies and win the Ashes.

We haven’t had them since I was about 14 years old and now I’m one of those guys, not to blow my own trumpet, that was part of the team which brought them back.

I’m proud to be playing with those other 10 boys.

We had a great working relationship, a great social relationship, we all get on well and if any team deserves it then we certainly do for the way we’ve worked these last 18 months.

It doesn’t seem like it should be me but it is. Someone like Alec Stewart went through his whole career and never beat the Aussies so it’s thrilling.

I can’t see there ever being a better series again. To get down to the last day of the series and the last afternoon is just ridiculous. You couldn’t have written a script any better and on a personal note to be out there for most of it towards the end was great as well.

It was nice to get some runs at last. I thought I batted pretty well first innings but the last day was something different. We were just so nervous, we felt physically sick in the morning after losing the first four wickets.

Everyone was very quiet and withdrawn but Kevin Pietersen just played out of his skin. What a time to get your first Test hundred and it was a knock of amazing maturity for a guy who has played as little cricket as he has.

It’s actually a lot easier once you get out there. I was shaking and felt sick beforehand and thought we’d lost it again but once you’re out there you just have to click in.

Luckily my head got into gear and Kevin was brilliant. He got me through and hopefully I got him through a bit and we just tried to count the overs down.

Kevin hit those two sixes off Shane Warne in the morning and said he’d just had enough of blocking him and took him on. That gave us the momentum and after lunch he took Brett Lee on.

I was out there later on and he hit a 96mph ball over deep midwicket for six - that’s a shot that you shouldn’t be able to play but this guy can do it.

As we got closer to the end and we knew we were safe it was tricky to keep my focus. When I first went out there I was swearing at myself and telling myself to keep concentrating. But then when you know you’re pretty safe and you’ve basically won the Ashes back, you’ve got one eye on the dressing room and you’re watching the guys.

You start to sense we’ve done it, the crowd senses it and you’re looking for your family and loved ones. It was difficult and although it was disappointing to get out, I couldn’t wait to get up there to be honest.

It was a bit of an anti-climax how it ended but at least we got out there in the field for a few balls as a team. That was nice and we all had our caps on, got down there and nothing could beat that with the lap of honour and everything that followed.

It was an incredible 48 hours and we stayed in the dressing room for quite a while. Then we went out afterwards - all the guys together and all the girls together - and it was a good night to say the least.

Then the next morning we expected a few people to turn up and wave but not what we got with thousands and thousands of people at Trafalgar Square. It was amazing and that will truly stay with me forever.

I didn’t realise the impact we had made. For the last week everything on the television, on the radio and in the newspapers had been about the Ashes and I tried to avoid it because it just built up the enormity of what we had to do.

I guess none of us realised just how much it meant to the whole country until we saw what happened the next morning.

It was brilliant that the family could be there to celebrate. We kept the girls out of school for a couple of days but I’m sure the headmistress will forgive us.

It was weird though that on the open-top bus with all that noise and all those people, they both fell asleep! They saw the first bit and were peeping their heads over the top as if to say ‘what’s all this about?’ They are great memories and nobody can ever take them away now.

It’s great that we’re raising the profile of the game. They’re saying cricket is the new football but we don’t want to go that big, we’re quite happy with what we do.

We’re getting more kids interested in cricket and that’s our main task. Part of our responsibility is to raise the profile and have a successful England cricket team and that’s what we’re doing.

Now I've got to wait and see about the freedom of Droitwich. I'm not sure exactly what that would mean, I think I'd be able to take sheep down the high street so I'm looking forward to that!