One of the more recent Ashes traditions is Glenn McGrath’s biannual prediction of a five-nil whitewash.
True to form, Pigeon has once again dusted off his crystal ball, studied his tea leaves, and forecast another Aussie clean sweep.
“I couldn’t have more faith in the boys”, he said yesterday. “I think we’ll bounce back and win all the Tests. They’ll be close, but I’m tipping a 5-0 whitewash.”
We’ve been here before, and the obvious response is to cockily remind him of the outcome in 2005 after he made the very same prediction.
But he also forecast a whitewash in 2006/07 – and he was right.
The painful fact is that only by very narrow margins have we avoided multiple trouserings in Australia. In 2002/3 we were 4-0 down going into the final test – for which McGrath and Shane Warne were both absent, enabling our pride-salvaging victory.
In 1998/9, the last afternoon at Brisbane was washed out, and Australia unexpectedly collapsed at Melbourne. But for those two sessions, it would have been 5-0.
In cricket, the worst can always happen. Let’s hope Glenn’s rune-reading is as accurate as Mitchell Johnson was at Lord’s last year.
Some about a broken clock being right twice a day comes to mind……