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It's the summer of 2005.

The country is swept up in Ashes fever as the greatest Test series of all time unfolds before our very eyes.

Test cricket was on free-to-air TV back then, allowing fanatics and casual observers alike to become engrossed in the pure theatre of the sport's purest format.

As an impressionable 12-year-old, I already fell into the first category.

I was fully hooked on that series before a ball had been bowled. I was acutely aware that England had their first realistic chance of toppling Australia for almost two decades.

I was even more aware that England were led by a Yorkshireman, a Sheffielder and a Wednesday fan in Michael Vaughan. Unlike the current incumbent who supports the other lot.

Australia were full of superstars. Langer. Hayden. Ponting. Gilchrist. Lee. Gillespie. McGrath.

But there was one star that shone that bit brighter than the rest. And not just his barnet.

Shane Warne was one of a kind. He had been England's nemesis for more than a decade before that series. He was the best bowler that ever walked the planet. And what's more, he knew he was.

The 2005 Ashes series rightly goes down in the echelons of cricket as the best ever. But when you break it down, there's one main