Waiting for Lord's

Ashes tours have always accompanied bouts of extreme anticipation. Throw a tour party on a boat or a plane every four years or so, and the talk flows instead of ebbs. The 2005 build-up - presuming, naively, that it started after New Zealand were finished off and not six months before - will be almost twice as long as the visit itself, and the sustained interest of Australia's supporters might not make the journey.

The players would have been on board already in earlier eras, waiting for the white cliffs to replace the white peaks. Some squads would have passed Dover by the end of April and been gazing at Worcester Cathedral or remembering their recent deck dances mixed with black-tie dinners, shuffleboard and Bill O'Reilly's singing. In 2005 the shuffling is from leg to leg waiting for the first Test at Lord's. As it was sold out months ago, the Australian fans are more likely clicking from station to station until the first July 21 delivery from SBS, cricket's television debutant.

Complaints of crowded playing schedules have become as regular as updates on Andrew Flintoff's ankle. (Is it ahead of schedule, on schedule, flopping, flapping, or flipping madness?) But this southern autumn the lack of action is forcing empty laptops to be filled with perforated news. Australia's squads have been chosen and there's nothing left but to wait and speculate. About Shane Warne and the Michaels, Kasprowicz and Clarke. About rain in September and carbon-graphite strips. Sometimes even about England.

The sailing isolation that ended for Australia 41 years ago must have been bliss. There are now no deck quoits from the players or dancing with the stars. Instead it's lots of gym and family time, too many questions and too much tackling on the box.

Past players are trying to fill the void by predicting results, but the verdicts have been as uncompromising as the past four tours. The crystal Kookaburra balls say Australia 5-0, 4-0, or 3-0 with two Tests ruined by the weather. Parent-teacher interviews have never been so one-sided. It will take an early-series loss for most Australians to learn that England's resurgence is not a 334th false dawn. Even then it might not register.

The dismissive attitude was previously the star quality of the north. Allan Border's 1989 squad was dubbed the worst to land in England and departed four months later with a 4-0 victory. Geoff Marsh, the tour vice-captain, still remembers the barbs that gave the team celebrations extra satisfaction and began a 16-year grip on the urn. Bob Simpson's favourite Ashes memory in four tours as player and coach was leading the 1964 squad to a 1-0 series win when "we weren't supposed to". Both trips are relevant reminders of the upsets of underdogs.

Simpson's '64 journey was the last to England by boat and the first by plane, the players steaming to Bombay before flying into Heathrow. With the novelty photograph of the squad walking down the steps taken, the captain and the manager attended the arrival press conference. Modern-day players must drool at the lack of participants: they find it difficult to escape the glare before or during any visit.

Another downside is the tour downsizing. These jet-in, jet-out trips form short stories rather than a series of chapters. Silver-haired greats discuss their Ashes migration in no doubt that it was the time of their life. The tours unfurled like sails and there were weeks to discover form, friends and fun.

The first rope was usually untied at Worcester in April or May; this time the opening first-class game will be in July against either Leicestershire, Sussex or Somerset at the TBC ground, the most popular venue for unsure schedulers. There were 32 matches in 1902, one more than Bill Woodfull's 1930 tour, and Simpson's '64 outfit turned out in 33 fixtures before Border guided his men to 35 in 1989, including end-of-tour giggles against The Netherlands and Denmark.

Twelve one-day games beef up the 2005 itinerary, but the warm-ups and the Tests - the dinky-di Ashes Tour - total only ten games. Lead-up matches once covered as the interviews and form guides, but now the players' voices have been forced to take on the role. The tour will be over in less than two months, as the trip of a lifetime barely becomes extended leave.

The current players fit much more in a year than their predecessors, but it feels like everybody is missing out. As they carry huge levels of expectation they will not be the only ones hoping the abbreviated trip will be worth the hype.