AUSTRALIA HOUSE, which stands on the Aldwych in London's old colonial heartland, seems an appropriate venue for an exhibition devoted to the Ashes. The Aussies have held on to the famous handful of dust for most of the 20th century, as the narrative storyboards that run round the walls make clear. If it wasn't Lindwall and Miller, it was Lillee and Thomson, or even Hughes and McDermott.

In spite of all the cut-glass chandeliers and marble walls, the place sounds quite rowdy. There's Men at Work, greeting us with regular choruses of their hit `They come from a land down under', and there's cheering from the various highlights films that are running on monitors around the room. Every five minutes, the unmistakable twang of Richie Benaud can be heard over the babble: `It's all over! And it's one of the most fantastic victories ever known.'

Other multimedia exhibits include radio clips of John Arlott and Brian Johnston, a bank of screens linked in to internet sites, and an interactive Coopers & Lybrand display where you can call up their world rankings and graphs for selected Ashes greats. My favourite bit was Electronic Arts' computerised cricket simulation, in which my team of novice Englishmen managed a conclusive 29-run victory over South Africa in a 10-over game. If we'd been playing Australia it would probably have been a different story.

`Bradman's Walk to Glory' by Colin Dudley – one of the paintings on show at Australia House

In the cabinets lining the walls you'll find a somewhat eccentric selection of artefacts, mostly drawn from the collection of WCM columnist and former editor David Frith. There's Jack Brown's bat, recently featured on Antiques Roadshow, which he used to make the fastest fifty in Test history back in 1894–95. There's Max Walker's size 13 boots, Don Bradman's blazer from the 1934 tour, and an astonishingly flimsy glove that the late Leo O'Brien wore during the Bodyline series.

This would all be diverting enough if you stumbled across it during a wet lunchtime, but there simply isn't the material here to make a day-trip worthwhile. An exhibition official admitted to me that a live Test match on their telly improves the atmosphere no end. The truth is that cricket, like all sport, is an exhibition in itself.

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