As interest in the real-life Ashes hits fever pitch, Nintendo and Codemasters have teamed up to promote the Wii edition of the series’ official game.

Ashes 2009 is being backed by a significant TV campaign that will begin on Monday August 3rd and run for four weeks.

The ad will run alongside Ashes coverage on Sky Sports and Channel 5, and will also be shown in wider-reaching spots on Channel 4, E4, Bravo, Dave, Sky One/Two/Three, Comedy Central, Virgin 1, ITV and MTV.

“To have Nintendo supporting Ashes Cricket 2009 is a great result and makes the TV campaign our primary marketing drive,” said  Codemasters’ general manager Jeremy Wigmore.

“Wii is the perfect format for a mainstream cricket title, with the Wii Remote making batting and bowling wholly intuitive. The game is perfectly pitched and with this level of support means we’re set to deliver a cracking summer of cricket success.”

The Ashes series is currently dominating the back pages of newspapers, and Codemasters’ official tie-in will ship on PS3, Xbox 360, PC and Wii on August 7th. It features fully licensed players, kits an arenas.

“We are really excited about working in partnership with Codemasters on the forthcoming release of Ashes Cricket 2009 on Wii,” commented Codemasters’ junior product manager Zoe Cooper.

“With the Ashes in full swing this summer we are hoping for a great success.”