Mike Atherton

Tomorrow morning, England begin their long-anticipated Ashes series against Australia at the spiritual home of cricket, Lord's.

Andrew Miller looks back on ten of the greatest performances in Anglo-Australian history

Michael Atherton believes Australia will be accused of double standards if their walking phase continues alongside appealing for doubtful decisions

Who are the commentators you want to listen to?

MA Atherton: no prospect of a repeat of his epic unbeaten 185 at Johannesburg in 1995-96 © Getty Images It was a given at some stage of the series

A star-studded selection panel chaired by Sunil Gavaskar will choose the ICC World XIs for the six-day Super Test against Australia and three one-day matches in October

The ICC has named Kapil Dev, Michael Holding and Ian Healy among 12 former players and media representatives for the voting academy to select the world's best players of the past 12 months at the ICC Awards in September

Simon Wilde picks his top five rivalries

Apathy among the British public is the single greatest threat to cricket's future, according to a survey conducted by a new sports lobbying group, The Sports Nexus

However much the ECB might wish that it would, the subject of next autumn's proposed tour of Zimbabwe just won't go away

In an exclusive interview for the first edition of The Wisden Cricketer magazine, which goes on sale on Friday, September 19, Michael Vaughan has called for a restructuring of county cricket, in which the number of Championship games in a season

Today's match brings up the half-century of Test matches at Trent Bridge

1993 On his first day as England captain, Mike Atherton top-scored with 72 at Edgbaston,­ but it was soon the same old story as Australia went on to win the Test and the series

Movement of players within New Zealand's domestic cricket has resulted in a re-balancing of player experience, especially when international players are taken out of the picture

2001 Hamilton Masakadza becomes the first black African to score a Test century - and, for all of 41 days, the youngest debutant centurion in Test history

1998 Mike Atherton v Allan Donald

All Today's Yesterdays - July 23 down the years July 22 | July 24 1953 Birth of a batsman who took a while to find his feet in Test cricket but went on to become the best of his generation

The unbeaten 185 in Johannesburg, the challenges and trials of England captaincy, the "dirt-in-the-pocket" affair, the Trent Bridge duel with Allan Donald, and the hereditary back condition which eventually triggered retirement this time last year -

As widely anticipated, Michael Atherton today announced his retirement frominternational and first-class cricket as a whole at the end of this season