Speaking to Off The Ball Australian Matt Williams spoke about how important The Ashes is to his home country.
"For me personally I played cricket my whole life it's a generational thing really, but it's probably moved on a bit," the former Waratahs coach said.
"It's the only sport that unifies the country because otherwise it's definitely split between rugby and Aussie Rules."
Despite the competition from other sports, cricket seems to hold a very special place in Australian's hearts.
"There was a great photo last year with the Prime Minister of Australia and the captain of the Australian cricket team."
"The caption simply said, "One's the most important person in Australia and the other is the Prime Minister," Williams said.
It's a sport that seems to gather large crowds regardless of what the test is.
"It's still culturally very much at the forefront of Australian sport. The boxing day test, the pink test which raises money for breast cancer, they're always packed."
"Then the Ashes series comes around and it's five days in a row of test matches it always sells out quickly."
It's also a sport that captures the imagination of Australians from all different backgrounds.
"A lot of players certainly come from the heartland so a lot of country kids who are very tough people mentally."
"That would be the hallmark of the successful cricketers over the years some very, very mentally tough human beings," the former Ulster coach said.
Amateur players
A lot of things have changed since The Ashes began back in 1882 and they've even changed since Williams was growing up.
"It wasn't televised when I was a boy, we didn't have a lot of money in the Williams household then and we had crystal radios, they were these things you could clip onto a little piece of metal and it acted as an antenna,"
"It only happened every four years and the players were amateurs. They did get paid a little bit but they would come back home and work as well," the former Leinster coach recalled.
Because they weren't full-time cricketers it grew their legend even more, similar to how GAA stars are viewed in Ireland.
"Keith Miller is one player that comes to mind he was a fighter pilot in WWII. He played for Melbourne in the AFL and he was one of the great cricketers of his time."
"These guys were larger than life, they were heroes to us mere mortals and they came from all over Australia."
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