One of the best teams in cricket history playing against an injury-hit England squad which has fumbled through its warm-up matches wouldn't normally point to an enthralling summer.

But it's the Ashes - and that is why fans will pack grounds around the country.

While those close to the Australian team are wary of writing off England, among those preparing to take their places in the stands to watch their heroes, it's a different story.

Australian cricket fans are gearing up to have another go at the Poms, while British expats and the Barmy Army hordes puff their chests out and begin sentences like: "Well you never know, we just might...".

Then they stop and, as if realising the absurdity of what they are about to say, mutter with familiar self-deprecating humour something about fully expecting to get soundly thrashed.

With world champion Australia on home soil chasing an eighth consecutive Ashes series, fans may have little doubt about the outcome but they still want to be there.

Former Test great Alan Davidson, NSW Cricket's long-serving president, says the Sydney Cricket Ground has already recorded unprecedented figures for people wanting reserve seats at the fifth and final Test.

So what is it about the Ashes that it can still pull such big and passionate crowds.

"I think basically England-Australia in Test matches have always had that special significance," says Davidson, who played his first Test at Trent Bridge on Australia's Ashes tour of England in 1953.

"It's this little colony that had the hide to take on England at a game which was started in England and the pupils, I suppose you could call us, have taken on the masters and we've beaten the masters."

Now the Australians are the masters and England has not won an Ashes series since 1986-87.

People love to watch winners and this Australian side has proven time and again that it's the best in the world.

But it hasn't always been this way. Australia is some way from dominating Ashes cricket overall.

Of 61 series played, Australia has won 29 and England 26 with six draws.

Australia has won 121 of the 301 Tests between the nations with England winning 94 and 86 drawn matches.

And there have been significant periods when England has been on top.

In 1953, England wrested back the urn to break an Australian stronghold on the trophy dating back to the 1930s.

Australia had to wait until its summer of 1958-59 to reclaim the honours and went overseas in 1961 determined to beat England on its home soil, which it did.

There is something else that gives The Ashes its mystique and inspires the young to dream.

"My grandfather on my mother's side one day showed me a photograph of the ship taking our team to England in 1938," Davidson says.

"I was nine at the time and I said, 'well one day I will, Grandad.'"

A sport and rivalry steeped so firmly in tradition inspires the desire to emulate past heroes like no other competition.

"What made Australia during The Depression, when things were at their toughest? There was a horse called Phar Lap and a bloke called Bradman," Davidson says.

There is no greater Australian hero than Don Bradman - the man whose astounding talent prompted England to resort to leg-theory in a bid to stop him, resulting in the infamous Bodyline series of 1932-33.

Davidson remembers watching the fifth Ashes Test of 1946-47 in Sydney as a teenager.

"I actually wagged school and went with my uncle down to watch the Test match," he says.

"I saw Bradman score 12 runs and, whilst it was a very modest score for him, it was amazing ... I don't recall a shot that he played but I do remember how he used his feet."

While Australian-English relations had long since recovered by the time of that Test match, Bodyline will never be forgotten.

The game has changed, the names have changed.

But, with another breed of heroes to worship, Australian punters are set to relish a fresh tilt at the old enemy.

© 2002 AAP

This report does not necessarily represent the views of the Australian Cricket Board.