English cricket suffered in the early eighties when a Test side traveled to South Africa to play cricket. It was known as the 'rebel' tour, and all players who went on the tour were banned from International cricket for three years. Because of this, England were very much under strength for the tour to Australia in 1982 - 83.

England batted first in Perth and scored 411, thanks to Chris Tavare (89), Derek Randall (78) and David Gower (72). Yardley was the pick of the bowlers with 5 for 107. Australia took a first innings lead of 13 after Greg Chappell scored 117 and four other batsmen scored 50's including Lawson and Dyson. Terry Alderman missed the rest of the season (shown in the photo being carried off the field) following a freak shoulder injury caused by tackling a spectator who had run onto the field while celebrating England reaching 400 runs. Randall scored 115 in his second innings and the match easily ended as a draw.

Australia won the toss for the second match in successionand put England in to bat. Lawson took 6 for 47 as England were dismissed for only 219, Lamb the only batsman offering any resistence with 72. In reply Australia scored 341 thanks mainly to Kepler Wessels (South African born) scoring 162, Bob Willis took 5 wickets for 66. England scored 309 in their second innings, Fowler top scoring with 83.Thompson and Lawson both took 5 wickets, and Rodney Marsh equalled Langley's record of 9 catches in a match as Australia won by 7 wickets.

Bob Willis made a big mistake asking Australia to bat at Adelaide, the home side eventually all out for 438. England were forced to follow on after scoring only 216 in their first innings.They managed to ask Australia to bat again , David Gower's 114 the main reason for doing so. Australia then scored the 83 runs required, loosing only 2 wickets on the way. Lawson took another 9 wickets in the match. (Lawson is shown in the photograph, bottom right, bowling a short quick delivery to Tavare during his phenominal success in the series)

2 rubbers up in the series and three games gone, England had to win the final two Tests to retain the Ashes. Honours were pretty much even after the first innings, Australia slightly holding the advantage by 3 runs. England then scored 294 and set Australia 291 to win, it couldn't have turned out closer. Norman Cowans (6-77) reduced the Australians to 9 for 218, the home side still requiring 74 runs to win. Thompson joined Allan Border, and the pair scored more than half the runs by the close of play on the 4th day. Just under 20, 000 non paying spectators watched as they attempted to score 37 runs for victory on the final day. Three runs short, Thompson edged a ball to second slip, Tavare unable to hold onto the ball , palmed it up behnd his head where Miller was waiting and took the catch. Australia now led by 2-1.

The 5th and final Test of the series held at Sydney, ended in a draw. Australia had regained the Ashes and like England in 1978-79, took advantage of a depleted first choice Test side to win the prize. Lawson topped the wicket tacker with 34 in the series at an average of 20.20. Kim Hughes, scored 469 runs at an average of 67 to top the batsmen.