Ashes pre series build up

[Mike]

After just reading the first pre Ashes salvo from the Aussie media I thought we should start the pre series build up thread early to save these gems. If you see any quotable quotes about the Ashes please copy them here so we can have a re-read and a good chuckle after the event.

Most of this article is quotes so excuse me for copying the whole thing in case the article becomes unavailable.

England's killer instinct gone - Waugh
Steve Waugh believes England have lost their Ashes-winning momentum after drawing the Test series with Sri Lanka this week. While The Courier-Mail was already tipping the summer to "turn into a multi-million dollar fizzer", Waugh told the paper England's killer instinct has gone and they should have beaten the tourists 3-0.

"There's no doubt they've lost the momentum they got out of the Ashes," Waugh told the paper after Muttiah Muralitharan's 8 for 70 bowled Sri Lanka to a 1-1 outcome. "It's a poor result for [England]. They lacked the killer instinct, they were very casual and they fell back into some of their old bad habits like dropping catches and sloppy fielding."

The former Australian bowlers Geoff Lawson and Rodney Hogg also said the performances of England, who battled in India and Pakistan before the home series, have given Australia a clear edge. "Put your house, and mine, on Australia to win - and win comfortably," Lawson said in The Courier-Mail. "The Poms are going very poorly and Australia have the winter off ... we will be fresh and jumping out of our skins to give them a thrashing."

Hogg said Duncan Fletcher's squad needed to alter their plans. "The Poms have got a lot of re-thinking to do if they are going to be any good at all against us this summer," he said. Around 300,000 tickets have been sold for the Test series that begins at the Gabba on November 23.

[Mike]

Unfortunately, for England, Australia won't be able to provide any ammunition for them to use because they don't play again before the Ashes. On the otherhand, a poor performance by England against Pakistan will provide plenty of ammunition for the Aussie media to use in the war of words.

[Vrock]

Aussie's doing all the firing so far, nothing new I suppose.

Interesting that Australia are basically putting themselves as the favourites from the off, there is validity in that claim considering their relative performances since the Ashes, but England generally perform best when they are the underdogs. Or so we are led to believe nearly every series they play.

England are ahead in terms of bringing in more youngsters to the fold, Australia have had very few debutants over the summer and their ODI blooding of new quick bowlers wasn't greatly successful.

"Put your house, and mine, on Australia to win - and win comfortably" Lawson said in The Courier-Mail.

Remember, England only need to draw to retain the Ashes, and some of their fire power won't be quite firing as it used to I don't think.

[Pete]

Doesn't really matter what England do though, eh? We won test series before we won back the ashes and their ex-players came out saying it meant nothing.

If we'd have won all of our test series since the ashes, their ex-players would have only come out saying it'll be a different story in Australia, you've still not won in Australia etc..

[Mike]

This thread is not an invitation to wind-up English fans or Aussie fans so I hope members of this board don't lower the tone of this board by attacking one another in this thread. The media war of words is simply to create interest in the Ashes so don't take any of it personally. However, the quotes are part of the entertainment so enjoy them or dismiss them but don't use them to wind-up members of this board. We don't allow deliberate wind-ups on our friendly board. When the series actually starts I expect to see good sportsmanship in the discussions no matter how the series pans out.

[Ernest]

Well up to now hardly a war of words- England targeted says Shane Warne.

Originally Posted by Shane Warne

Champion leg-spinner Shane Warne believes that England has been a victim of its own success since regaining the Ashes last year.

True - but England should have coped, truth is England should have won at Multen and set the tone for the pakistan series.
After a credible drawed series in India, and dominating Sri Lanka for two Test matches, and the first part of the third, England then bowed to the reputation of Murali, and team changes made sure the series was drawn.

Originally Posted by Shane Warne

I think England will be disappointed with their start to the (northern) summer, although Kevin Pietersen has done well with the bat,'' Warne said.

Mild stuff from Warne, but is he right?, is Pietersen doing well with the bat all England can take comfort from since the Ashes?.

Originally Posted by Shane Warne

It's hard with teams looking to beat you, you have to be up for every game, and England haven't had luck with injuries," Warne told PA.

Well he is probably right, but Plunkett - Mahmood and Panesar were doing just fine until the England selectors thought two medium pacers would blow over the Sri Lanka batsmen.

I think England do have some ammunition they can use to counter this provided they pick the correct team- and beat Pakistan.

Originally Posted by Steve Waugh

There's no doubt they've lost the momentum they got out of the Ashes," Waugh told the paper after Muttiah Muralitharan's 8 for 70 bowled Sri Lanka to a 1-1 outcome.

[Collyisamackem]

They seem to be nicely neglecting India, and the loss of several of our best Ashes performers, often for long periods. That includes the same captain who made Ricky Ponting look like a club captain!

That's about all the jibing I'll do for now, save to say I cannot wait and will be adjusting my sleeping arrangements accordingly to watch as much as I can of the action. I did so in 2002/03 and enjoyed the experience, rather than the cricket at the time!

[Quagmire]

The conditions will not suit the English like it did in the last ashes series so i will most likely be a win to Australia. England have seemed to crack very easierly of late when pressure is put on them . England have to move past the Ashes, after beating Australia they have played poor cricket because they expect to beat everyone else with out trying which is silly, because they arnt that good of a side. Not even Steve Waughs team was good enough to take teams easierly and the dominated through the late 90's.

[Victor Frankenstein]

I agree with Rowan, I think England are still playing on that Ashes win and have believed their own hype too much. Yes we've suffered from injuries, but so have other sides, in the same time Australia have been without McGrath and they have coped.

On the plus side though, I do think we're only missing a few bits, just that final edge that having Jones, Vaughan and Harmison back and a fit Flintoff would fix. The down side is that's quite a lot of things needed...

We dominated Pakistan in the first test and then suffered a horrendous and unneccessary collapse, we then dominated the second test but had to play catch up to force a result, and in the third test we fell over trying to chase the game again, all the time trying to go for victory in alien conditions. In India we dominated the first test, dominated the first couple of days of the 2nd only to collapse again and then dominated the third test. Against sri lanka we dominated the first two tests but then fell apart on the second day of the third.

So, it's not as bad as people are making out, but we're definately missing that extra 10% we managed to find during the Ashes. I do think that even if we find that extra 10% again and improve on that, we'll still struggle in Australia. They won't prepare helpful for pitches for us like we do for every touring side that comes here, they'll be flat dead batting tracks with an aim of scoring 550+ then men round the bat for Warne, given our recent record of collapses it's hard to bet against it happening.

Sport is great in it's unpredictability though, just because we're struggling now doesn't mean we won't raise our game for the Ashes and just because the Aussies are in form at the moment doesn't mean they will be come the winter. I just hope it's another close series otherwise there will be a lot of very dissapointed fans out there. I do think we can win, but only really if Harmison, Jones and Flintoff are fit, and i do think the newly improved Hoggard will be a threat in Perth if the old Freemantle doctor is blowing and Adelaide and Brisbane with the humidity... we shall see!

[Vrock]

Originally Posted by Victor Frankenstein

Yes we've suffered from injuries, but so have other sides, in the same time Australia have been without McGrath and they have coped.

Australia have lost one player, who was replaced by a guy who won't be around as long as some of England's set players now. England have lost a captain, half of our pace attack has been injured, and their replacements injured also. I'm not saying that England's related performances are an excuse for this, although it certainly is a contributing factor, but they have been far worse off in loss than Australia have through injuries.