Author(s): Ricky Ponting

Sport

No matter how packed the Australian cricket team's schedule -- in 2008-09 it featured tours to India and South Africa as part of an almost constant stream of Tests, Twenty20 and one-day internationals - one series always stands out ...The Ashes! In 2005, Ricky Ponting's side lost to England for the first time in almost 20 years, after one of the most famous battles in cricket history. The Ashes were regained in Australia 18 months later, but true redemption would not be achieved until the Poms were beaten on their own turf. In 2009, Ponting returned to the UK without many of his former champions - no Warne, no McGrath, no Gilchrist - but with a new army of young guns bent on setting the record straight. ASHES DIARY 2009 provides the inside account of this memorable confrontation, the climax of another tough, exciting and dramatic year in the life of one of Australia's most popular and successful cricketers.