Inside the Tour podcast returns to relive the unforgettable 1986/87 Ashes
On the eve of this winter’s Ashes tour, Auddy has confirmed its award-winning Inside the Tour podcast will return with a new eight-part series featuring England’s legendary 1986/87 Ashes win in Australia.
Launching on 3 December, Inside the Tour – The Ashes 1986/87 tells the astonishing tale of unknown call-ups, unlikely heroes, megastar supporters and how a piratical band of fading stars and county plodders produced a result that shocked the sporting world.
Featuring exclusive contributions from cricketing legends Sir Ian Botham and Allan Border, England’s tour captain Mike Gatting, star batters Chris Broad, David Gower and Allan Lamb, plus other key figures in the series including Phil De Freitas, Geoff Lawson, Gladstone Small and England manager, Mickey Stewart, Inside the Tour – The Ashes 1986/87 is the definitive story of the Ashes ‘86/87 tour, told by those who were there.
The podcast series provides the unfiltered take on an Ashes tour that featured two teams low on confidence, but with the Aussies heavily favoured on home turf. England had lost 5–0 against the West Indies the previous year, then to India and New Zealand respectively, without winning a single Test Match, during the English summer.
England’s form ahead of the First Test Match was so poor it prompted the Independent’s celebrated cricket writer Martin Johnson to write the immortal words: ‘There are only three things wrong with this England team. They can’t bat, can’t bowl and can’t field.”
ITV’s award-winning chief sports presenter Mark Pougatch joins Auddy for the latest series of Inside the Tour where he presides over more than five hours of exclusive interviews.
Pougatch was himself on the infamous Ashes trip as a teenager with aspirations of a career in sports journalism and vivid memories of Chris Broad and Jack Richards’ centuries and the bowling heroics of Phillip De Freitas and Gladstone Small.
Commenting on the series, Pougatch says: “England had been whitewashed by the West Indies in the Caribbean. Then lost two home tours to India and New Zealand. They’d sacked their captain David Gower and banned their superstar, Ian Botham. It’s fair to say England were in disarray.
“For the Australians, they lost a whole load of players to the rebel tour of South Africa and their captain Allan Border didn’t particularly want the job because his mate Kim Hughes was the previous captain who resigned tearfully at a press conference.”
Recalling the build-up to the ‘86/87 Ashes for Inside the Tour, former England captain David Gower comments: “Every Ashes tour starts with a sort of ritual which is, first of all, the Australian nation decides that the England team, the England squad is rubbish. And, when it’s announced they say: ‘well, they’ve got no chance.’ And, when the England team arrives in Australia, every newspaper says, and this is consistent with pretty much every tour that’s ever happened since 1882, ‘ this is the worst England side ever to reach these shores.’”
Pougatch continues: “You’ve got two teams in relative turmoil heading into cricket’s most famous rivalry, with England huge underdogs. What happened next was scarcely believable. Cricket fans old and new will enjoy learning more about this iconic series and seeing parallels between the heroes from ‘86/87 and the present day icons of English cricket as they aim to regain the Ashes urn this winter.”
All eight episodes of Inside the Tour – The Ashes 1986/87 will be released across all major podcast outlets on 3 December.