Storytelling is the great human pastime, stories themselves fulfilling the deep need for escapism that exists within most of us. And it is the narrative of the Ashes, from their fabled beginnings down to the latest instalment that began yesterday, which is the reason why we will all arrive at the ground today so full of expectation, so ready to lose ourselves in the drama for hour upon hour.

The greatest chapter within this story remains the 1932-33 Ashes series, otherwise known as Bodyline, or, to plagiarise our own Simon Barnes, as “the longest whinge in sporting history”. It is a chapter that has been told and retold many times, perhaps best of all by David Frith in his book Bodyline Autopsy, the kind of definitive account that renders anything else superfluous.

Almost. Duncan Hamilton, who waltzed off in 2007 with the sports writers' equivalent of the Booker Prize for his take on Brian Clough, has not been idle since, penning the authorised biography of Harold Larwood. Hamilton, who worked for the Nottingham Evening Post and, like Larwood, is from mining stock, was the wise choice of Larwood's daughters, who granted him access to their father's secrets.

The result is a near masterpiece. The only flaw - if you happen to be an arch realist of a former player, like me - is the slightly florid and romanticised depictions of Larwood's speed. No matter how quick he was - and when you look at the footage there is no doubt that he was quick - it is unlikely the ball hit the wicketkeeper's gloves before Douglas Jardine had time to pick up his bat, as Hamilton recounts of one of Larwood's earliest first-class games.

That, though, is a minor quibble. This is a magnificently written, intensely moving story of that rarest of breeds - a great English fast bowler. The story of a man who started his working life in the mines; who walked 12 miles to his trial at Trent Bridge and 12 miles back; whose diet of beer and cigarettes, and the odd glass of champagne at lunch, did not prevent him from becoming the fastest bowler of his day; who followed orders in Australia until his broken feet could barely carry him; who put the wind up the greatest batsman who ever lived; who was dropped like a stone by MCC afterwards; who suffered silently for two decades thereafter, ignored and ostracised; and who never saw the need to say sorry just to please others.

If you want to know why the Ashes matter, you could do worse than lose yourself for a few days in the story of this great and humble man.

Middlesex look closer to home for next Owais Shah

The presence of Ravi Bopara and Monty Panesar in England's ranks is testament to the rise of the Anglo-Asian cricketer in recent times, an advance that has in some measure made up for the decline among the Anglo-Caribbean community. However Middlesex, the county who represent the greatest number of Asians, have only one Anglo-Asian - Owais Shah - in their first team.

County teams are less representative of their communities than they have ever been. The freedom of movement granted to players, the advent of agents keen to maximise their clients' earnings, and the arrival of Kolpak cricketers and fly-by-night overseas players have resulted in a more fluid market than ever. Even so, Middlesex's monoculturalism is remarkable.

This is not a slight on Middlesex's ability or desire to produce home-grown players, rather that they produce home-grown players of a certain type. The middle-class, suburban grip on the English game is nowhere better illustrated than at Lord's - the ground, and the team who play there.

It is something that has exercised the mind of Angus Fraser, the Middlesex director of cricket, and the estimable Scyld Berry, the long-serving cricket correspondent of The Sunday Telegraph and now the editor of Wisden Cricketers' Almanack. Berry, in particular, has long lamented cricket's inability to tap into inner-city areas that must be heaving with talent - and probably unorthodox talent at that.

Between them they came up with the idea of an inner-London cricket competition, designed to bring a previously ignored section of the community into the fold and to promote social cohesion and harmony through sport. It is intended that the project will embrace other cities in 2010, so that a national inner-city competition will result.

This newspaper is sponsoring the London East division (they go by the name of The Times Tigers), while Freshfields, WHI and Barclays are sponsoring the teams from the North East, North West and West respectively. The competition starts on Tuesday and will be played at Brondesbury, Southgate, Hornsey and Eastcote cricket clubs.

Even though the clamour surrounding the Ashes will drown out everything else, this is a competition worth noting and supporting: surely there must be a potential Murali, Ajantha or Lasith out there somewhere. Details can be found at wisdencitycup.com

Grounds for concern over English Test venues

The realisation of an ambition should always be acknowledged, so Glamorgan can be rightly proud of the ground they have produced and of becoming the 100th Test-match venue. A lack of ambition, though, should always be highlighted and condemned, and the ECB can take no credit for staging the opening Ashes Test at a stadium that can hold only 16,000 spectators.

They are touchy about this criticism in these parts because it is perceived as some kind of anti-Welsh bias. It is nothing of the kind. It is a criticism of the ECB's policy of awarding Test matches according to the size of a county's wallet, rather than the quality of their cricket facilities, and, more importantly, a criticism of the decision to spread international cricket thinly among grounds with minuscule seating capacity.

Of Australia's five Ashes venues, only Perth, has a smaller capacity, at about 22,000, than England's biggest, Lord's, at 30,000. Australia's five biggest grounds give a capacity of about 93 seats per 1,000 head of population in an international summer, as opposed to England's 21 seats per 1,000.

The result, inevitably, is much higher ticket prices in England. In Cardiff, tickets range from £40-£90; they are higher at Lord's, of course, where only 60 per cent of seating is available to the public. Instead of more international grounds, surely there should be fewer with bigger capacities. More games at high-capacity grounds would, in turn, result in lower ticket prices. Cricket's lack of affordability means that it is, increasingly, targeting an affluent minority.

There are other, cricketing reasons why it would have been preferable not to have staged the opening game at what is, for England, virtually a neutral ground. But the decision to award the opening Test to Cardiff was taken not by the Major Match Group, whose decision it was to award the Test to Cardiff, but by the previous England management headed by Peter Moores and Michael Vaughan. It was a case of anywhere but Lord's, where England have not won a Test against Australia since 1934.