This is the Friends of History Debating Society. I'm John Batchel in New England, and I go to Jeremy Sackas, my colleague in New South Wales.

However, between us is a lot of planning for the big cricket test matches coming this year, especially the Ashes contest due at the end of the year between Australia and

England. When last we left our brave heroes, the pomegranates, otherwise known as the POMs,

they had been humbled by a South African team that hadn't won the championship in, I think,

a full generation, 27 years is my memory. It might be longer, but in any event, a long time. And asking Jeremy, what happened to

this championship team? Last summer, they were kings of the world beating India in India for the title.

This year, South Africa, the Mets of

international cricket failed to fall and Australia fails to win. So, Jeremy, you were gloomy.

What's happened? Well, John has been a complete reversal of fortunes.

In fact, I've gone from gloomy to ecstatic and very, very happy because I can now say

that as the World Test Championship of cricket starts off now, and with cricket, we have

many, many different competitions across the year. Most are very large and last for several months. And the one we're

starting now, the World Test Championship will actually lead us into the Ashes. So the Australian

team that we see now, the English team that we see now, may be the team that will actually go

in and go through to the Ashes. But I can report that the Australian team in the first round of the World Test Championship

against the West Indies who are very, very good competitors, we have actually won.

And not only have we won, we won by 159 runs, which means that we are well and truly

ahead right now in the points game, which means we are leading

the pack by 12 points, 12 championships points overall. So John, the news from Barbados of this

win is fantastic. It means that maybe the Australian team that wasn't doing so well only a few

weeks ago, which we know that a lot of the players are still the same, that was just a little

maybe upset in our calendar maybe they

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