No doubting "Cricket is sexy"

Specially since football lost the plot and welcomed Glazer to the fold. A man not in the least bit interested in the sport from a nation not in the least bit interested in the sport either. Man U's ticket sales slumped at its recent Champions League kick off match. Pro US Sky (to the degree that they only ever refer to football as soccer in The Sun, on Sky and in The Times) made light of it saying it undersold by only 20 thousand seats and was down to it being summer. The reality is this is unheard of for Man U seats and is a reaction by fans. Ive struggled to find seats under £100 for even their most basic matches in the back end of beyond (Millwall). Meanwhile the fans have swanned off to start up a new true fans version of their own Man U. The only decent thing the Glazers can now do is buy Owen so we get a good England strike partnership underway and then stay away.

Once seen as a boring, slow moving sport, this Ashes series has reinvigorated the game with England and Australia locking horns again. After the heroics of Andrew "Freddie" Flintoff at Edgbaston in the second Test tickets are now going for £500. About 40,000 people watched the first two Tests on giant screens in Regent's Park, London, and Cannon Hill Park, Birmingham. Official England cricket shirts are outselling football kits and even the tabloids are going cricket-crazy leading with the Ashes instead of football. A spokesman for the England and Wales Cricket Board, said:

"Cricket is sexy. We've got young photogenic players like Andrew Flintoff, Simon Jones and Kevin Pietersen in the England team.

"The passion for cricket is now unlike anything we've seen in this country since 'Botham's Ashes' in 1981."

Hopes are high that England can continue their remarkable form and reclaim the coveted Ashes, which they have not won since 1986.

The five-game series is in the balance at 1-1, and of course, the focus will be on Flintoff.

The 27-year-old, making his 50th Test match appearance for his country at his home ground, is described by his captain as an "extraordinary cricketer".