By Geoffrey Dean and Pat Gibson # January 5th 2007
England’s cricketers refused the opportunity to play four four-day matches in the build-up to their calamitous defence of the Ashes, a senior member of Cricket Australia has claimed. Instead, Duncan Fletcher’s team entered the series hopelessly underprepared, after only seven days’ cricket on Australian soil, and suffered a crushing defeat in the first Test in Brisbane that set the tone for the entire tour.
The claims of Bob Merriman, who finished his four-year term as chairman of Cricket Australia only weeks after England regained the Ashes so gloriously in 2005, were instantly rebutted by John Carr, the England and Wales Cricket Board’s director of operations and the man ultimately responsible for finalising the tour itinerary.
Whatever the truth, Merriman has ignited a row that could make yesterday’s sledging match between Shane Warne and Paul ******gwood seem like flat Aussie beer.
England rejected the proposal for a heavier schedule, Merriman said, because the players wanted a shorter build-up and settled for a one-day game against the Prime Minister’s XI, which they lost embarrassingly easily, and two three-day matches against New South Wales and South Australia, which were not considered first-class because England wanted to use all their squad.
The inquisition into England’s preparations gathered momentum when Stephen Harmison’s now infamous first ball of the series veered into the hands of Andrew Flintoff, the startled captain, at second slip. Flintoff and Fletcher, the coach, have since insisted that they were satisfied with the build-up, but, significantly, it is only since the Ashes were so ignominiously lost that Harmison has found some rhythm.
According to Merriman, it could have been so different. He claims that Cricket Australia successfully argued to bring forward the ICC Champions Trophy in India, which preceded the tour, by two weeks and would have cancelled the Prime Minister’s XI game because they were convinced that England would hold out for a lengthy period of meaningful warm-up matches.
“We thought they would come straight from India rather than go home,” Merriman, who is still a member of the board, said.
“Apparently, though, their players didn’t want to. We offered them four four-day matches before the first Test, beginning in Sydney, then Melbourne, Adelaide and Brisbane.” Cricket Australia was prepared to start the first Test — which began on November 23 — at the end of the month to accommodate the warm-ups.
Carr responded: “The truth is that Cricket Australia actually made us pay for our first day in Australia [against normal protocol] on the basis that we were having a longer lead-in period to the first Test than they received on the [first-class leg of the] 2005 tour of England.
“Their proposed arrival date for us was actually a day later than we got there so we could not physically have fitted in four four-day matches in the period that they were prepared to host us, which was for 18 days before the first Test.
“As for cancelling the one-day game in Canberra, it was a major Cricket Australia requirement because, politically, the match against the Prime Minister’s XI is a very important fixture for them.”
Merriman also revealed that Cricket Australia is keen to revert to six-Test Ashes series, the Bellerive Oval in Hobart staging the extra match.
Source :: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,23069-2532488,00.html
England’s cricketers refused the opportunity to play four four-day matches in the build-up to their calamitous defence of the Ashes, a senior member of Cricket Australia has claimed. Instead, Duncan Fletcher’s team entered the series hopelessly underprepared, after only seven days’ cricket on Australian soil, and suffered a crushing defeat in the first Test in Brisbane that set the tone for the entire tour.
The claims of Bob Merriman, who finished his four-year term as chairman of Cricket Australia only weeks after England regained the Ashes so gloriously in 2005, were instantly rebutted by John Carr, the England and Wales Cricket Board’s director of operations and the man ultimately responsible for finalising the tour itinerary.
Whatever the truth, Merriman has ignited a row that could make yesterday’s sledging match between Shane Warne and Paul ******gwood seem like flat Aussie beer.
England rejected the proposal for a heavier schedule, Merriman said, because the players wanted a shorter build-up and settled for a one-day game against the Prime Minister’s XI, which they lost embarrassingly easily, and two three-day matches against New South Wales and South Australia, which were not considered first-class because England wanted to use all their squad.
The inquisition into England’s preparations gathered momentum when Stephen Harmison’s now infamous first ball of the series veered into the hands of Andrew Flintoff, the startled captain, at second slip. Flintoff and Fletcher, the coach, have since insisted that they were satisfied with the build-up, but, significantly, it is only since the Ashes were so ignominiously lost that Harmison has found some rhythm.
According to Merriman, it could have been so different. He claims that Cricket Australia successfully argued to bring forward the ICC Champions Trophy in India, which preceded the tour, by two weeks and would have cancelled the Prime Minister’s XI game because they were convinced that England would hold out for a lengthy period of meaningful warm-up matches.
“We thought they would come straight from India rather than go home,” Merriman, who is still a member of the board, said.
“Apparently, though, their players didn’t want to. We offered them four four-day matches before the first Test, beginning in Sydney, then Melbourne, Adelaide and Brisbane.” Cricket Australia was prepared to start the first Test — which began on November 23 — at the end of the month to accommodate the warm-ups.
Carr responded: “The truth is that Cricket Australia actually made us pay for our first day in Australia [against normal protocol] on the basis that we were having a longer lead-in period to the first Test than they received on the [first-class leg of the] 2005 tour of England.
“Their proposed arrival date for us was actually a day later than we got there so we could not physically have fitted in four four-day matches in the period that they were prepared to host us, which was for 18 days before the first Test.
“As for cancelling the one-day game in Canberra, it was a major Cricket Australia requirement because, politically, the match against the Prime Minister’s XI is a very important fixture for them.”
Merriman also revealed that Cricket Australia is keen to revert to six-Test Ashes series, the Bellerive Oval in Hobart staging the extra match.
Source :: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,23069-2532488,00.html
