Tim Wigmore questions the validity of the hyper-coverage given to two teams who are well off the world No.1 spot

Winners: England celebrate in 2005 but just how good were the teams?
PICTURE: Getty Images

And so it begins, again: the hype and phoney war that is the prelude to every Ashes series, home and away. In a sense it is all justified: the Ashes is the last series that is always played over five Test matches and, for lovers of the longest format, a unique event to savour.
All of this is well and good, but it cannot obscure what the Ashes is, when you strip back the hype. It is a ...