Thread by @shaunjlawson

So many memories of stirring in the middle of the night, hearing the score on Test Match Special, rolling over and putting my head back under the covers in interminable despair.

Bruce Reid's reign of terror in 1990/1 sticks in the mind even now.

So does the Atherton/Hick disaster in 1994/5. And Nasser saying "we'll have a bowl, mate" in 2002 and THAT collapse - every England batsman frozen in the headlights - at Adelaide in 2006/7 and the utter disgrace and shame of 2013/14. Truly, as embarrassing as the 1993 brownwash.

I have these tiny, can just about recall them memories of Newsround reports when we won in 1986-7 (but lost the last Test, which meant Allan Border kept his job. Oops).

Otherwise, my Ashes-watching lifetime started in 1989. Gooch lbw b Alderman, again and again and AGAIN.

Wonder of wonders, we could even deal with the bejewelled, breathtaking West Indies by 1990. Has there ever been a greater cricketer than Viv Richards? A greater opening pair than Greenidge and Haynes? A greater fast bowler than Malcolm Marshall? Gus Logie was my personal fave.

During the school holidays, I'd watch all day long, enthralled. With a sandwich and packet of hula hoops for lunch when the teams lunched too.

But we just couldn't handle Australia. At all. The amount of trauma they inflicted on English children my age during that time...!

In 32 years, you know how often we've played either very well or decently Down Under? Twice. 1998/9 was one of my favourite Ashes series... even though we lost the urn in no time and might easily have lost 5-0 (but also drawn 2-2: Slater's run out that wasn't given was a scandal)

As it was, 3-1 was about right. I still see that series plus South Africa the summer beforehand (but did Cronje throw it?) as when things began to turn. I will always be thankful to Alec Stewart for that, and will always believe his dismissal as captain was absurdly premature.

But now? Well, here's the thing. Test cricket is treated as less and less important by everyone. With England finally a proper limited overs side (we weren't for about a quarter of a century!), we're not developing players with the backbone and patience necessary for Test cricket

Very few sides ever win big series away from home any more - India in Australia a remarkable exception - and the English game's disgusting sell-out to satellite TV after 2005 means far fewer people get to watch.

Which has a huge knock-on effect on interest and playing numbers.

The whole of Test cricket is slowly dying away. An absolutely awful thing - because if you don't enjoy Test cricket, you don't enjoy life itself. It's like the slowest of slow cooking, full of its own rhythms and intricacies.

So I guess we should enjoy it while it still lasts.

4-1 Australia was my pre-series prediction.

Currently, that's looking a tad optimistic. 😳😳😳

Oh England, my England. ☹️