12/11/2005 22:40

Thank you for joining the Ashley Giles fan Club.

2005 has been the most amazing summer of cricket that this country has ever seen. It has caught the imagination of everyone, young and old. It has also been by far the toughest series that I have ever played in.

There have been highs and lows, disappointments and much excitement. I've had many sleepless nights thinking about that day's play or the next day's play. At time I thought I would never come through it. But, in the end I did, we all did. The whole nation felt the joy of finally winning the Ashes back. Personally I will never forget that final day at the Oval or the open top bus ride around London.

It's great to be part of a wonderful team with everyone contributing. I feel very proud of my team mates and my country. Now we must go on and get better and better, retain the Ashes, win the World Cup......who knows!.

Please keep supporting.

Thank You.

Ashley Giles

The following is an extract from a Vodaphone Q&A session in which Ashley talked about his favourite wickets:

There are four wickets that really stick out in my mind.

The first is Tendulkar being stumped, which I think is still the only time he has been stumped in Test cricket. I just remember seeing him start to advance and I managed to get the ball to dip on him - or that's my story!

The next would be Inzamam-ul-Haq in Karachi during the last tour down there. It was the end of the 4th day, when the Test was in the balance. I remember he was trying to kick the ball away and it spun around his front pad and took out his off stump. Fantastic! We went on to win the series in the pitch black.

My third and a recent one was Lara's wicket during the Lord's Test, this series. It would probably be the most prized of all my wickets as he was my 100th Test victim and given he is the best batsman in the world it simply has to go down as the best.

The fourth would be Chris Cairns at Trent Bridge. I was bowling over the wicket and the ball pitched leg and hit the top off. It might seem a strange one to include, and probably wasn't one of my best deliveries, but I felt that it was the wicket that turned my fortunes this summer.