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Richard Edwards looks back to the 1986-87 series when cynics in the Press were made to eat their words
Before the opening Test of the 1986/87 Ashes series in Brisbane, England’s cricketers had travelled 5,640 miles – and the odds of them ultimately emerging victorious were as lengthy as an itinerary that had seen Mike Gatting’s men embark on what had already amounted to a grand tour of Australia.
“It wasn’t as if we were travelling around and beating everyone in sight either,” says Bill Athey, 31 years on. “And everywher...