Aggers’ Ashes. Jonathan Agnew

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СКАЧАТЬ claiming the bowler had chosen them on his own seemed indicative of a lack of leadership skills.

      Australian fans declare themselves baffled at why a batsman of such attacking verve and pugnacity and so steeped in the traditions of the game should prove to be so devoid of tactical nous and composure when things get uncomfortable. There won’t be too many people putting their hand up to replace Ponting if he becomes the first Australian captain to lose three Ashes series since Billy Murdoch in 1890. But you might hear a lot of people saying: “Seriously, who’d want to captain this side?”

      DAY 22: 24 November 2010

      Sod’s law: with the First Test starting tomorrow I am struck down by a stomach bug. It is nothing serious, but it is uncomfortable and disabling, and with so much work to do today, rotten timing. My old TMS producer and good friend, Peter Baxter, throws a BBQ at his Brisbane home and although I attend I am still feeling pretty crook and can’t enjoy it as much as I would have liked. Peter, the lucky so-and-so, spends half the year here, and halfback in the UK.

      The cabbie who takes me to the Gabba doesn’t lift my mood when, having told him where I wanted to go, replies: “Hey! You’re Aggers, aren’t you?” A little puffed up, I confirm that indeed I am none other, only for my ‘fan’ to offer up: “My! You’re much less handsome than you sound on the radio!” Thanks a lot, mate.

      The captains’ press conferences are very well attended – the ranks of the English media must have trebled since our arrival in Brisbane, but surprisingly there isn’t a reporter present from ABC Radio. This is potentially tricky for me as I need an interview with Ponting, and the usual pre-match form is that I stick my microphone into the ABC interview and send the result on to London. The Cricket Australia people are clearly very agitated that ABC aren’t here – they chose to record the television press conference – but kindly agree that I may have a few minutes with Ponting to myself. This takes place in a corridor so dark that I can barely see his face, but he is his usual professional self, and I appreciate his co-operation. This comes only a few minutes after Ponting has fallen for one of the great tabloid stitch ups that always occur on the day before the opening Test of an Ashes series in Australia. Because of the time difference it is a blank day for the writers. John Etheridge of the Sun tosses out the usual question about whether the Ashes urn should be held in the country that wins it rather than being permanently housed at Lord’s, and Ricky bites: “Why not, that would be good.” ‘Ponting will Urn Trophy’ is the resulting headline in the Sun.

      Strauss strikes me as being rather tense, which is entirely understandable. After I put down my microphone and he starts to walk away I shout after him: “Andrew. Please make sure you all enjoy it. There’s nothing better than this!” “Don’t worry. We’re going to,” he calls over his shoulder, before disappearing down the same dark corridor.

      Later that evening I make good on a promise and meet up with a group of England supporters – who arrived in Australia only this morning – for a swift question and answer session to get them in the mood. After twenty minutes, loud snoring interrupts my flow. It’s all been too much for one old boy in the front row!

      AUSTRALIA AWAITS AS ENGLAND EXPECTS

      Tom Fordyce | 24 November 2010

      There’s been talk of little else – a team of English stars, exposed to the toughest challenges Australia can throw at them, battling enormous pressure and a huge weight of expectation back home in Blighty. Still, enough of I’m a Celebrity. After months of bellicose build-up and fluctuating form, the Ashes are finally upon us. And for England fans both at home and here in Brisbane, there’s an unfamiliar sense of optimism in the humid Queensland air.

      It’s not normally this way. At this stage of an Ashes ding-dong Down Under, England are usually being ripped apart by a caustic local media and mercilessly taunted by cocksure Aussie fans. It shouldn’t even make sense. The hosts haven’t lost a Test at the Gabba in over 20 years. England haven’t won a series here for almost a quarter of a century. They’ve only won three of the last 24Tests on Australian soil.

      But this time around, the established order appears to have been turned on its head. Australia are the ones coming into the series with injury problems and ropey form, England are the team with wins under the belt and a settled side. So far the media scorn has been aimed squarely at the Australian selectors. The mood among home fans is positively downbeat. For England supporters reared on a diet of Aussie domination, it’s all rather unsettling, almost too good to be true. Even the Brisbane weather and Gabba pitch appear to be on the side of the tourists – grey and sweaty overhead, greenish and a little juicy underfoot.

      Whether the track stays that way is another matter. While the forecast for Thursday morning is for clouds and warmth, the pitch may just be a late developer. Queensland might have been skittled for 75 and 96 here by New South Wales earlier this month, but Aussie captain Ricky Ponting thinks groundsman Kevin Mitchell has prepared a classic Gabba wicket-spicy enough to keep the pace bowlers interested, but one which will offer something for the spinners later on and bring full reward for disciplined batting.

      “I think it looks particularly good,” a chirpy Punter said at the stadium on Wednesday. “It looks exactly like wickets look here the day before a match.” Ponting won’t be drawn on whether he’ll opt to bat if he wins the toss. Nor will Andrew Strauss (“I’ve got pretty firm ideas of what I want to do, but you’ve got to be prepared to do both.”) After England’s chastening experiences on the first day in 2002 and 2006, it should be a no-brainer for the tourists: call correctly, and get the pads on.

      Except it’s not quite so straightforward. England’s bowling attack requires seam-friendly conditions. If there’s early swing in the air, goes the argument you increasingly hear in local bars and cafes, might it be better to shove recent history to one side and go hard for the jugular? The stats aren’t quite as onesided as we might imagine. In Ashes Tests at this ground, the team winning the toss has batted first 13 times, and gone on to win on six occasions. In the five matches where a skipper has opted to stick the opposition in, they’ve won two. In all Tests at the Gabba, 64 per cent of games have been won by the side batting first, 36 per cent by the team batting second. Yet since the end of the 1970s, Australia have opted to bowl on nine of the 15 times they’ve won the toss.

      What isn’t in doubt is how spicy the atmosphere will be inside this gold and green concrete bowl come the first ball. The most telling moment of Ponting’s ebullient pre-match news conference came when he spoke about forcing his side to watch England celebrate after they had regained the urn last summer. “I made sure it hurt them as much as possible when the Ashes were handed over to Andrew Strauss at The Oval,” he said. “There is no doubt that that’s been driving us – that empty feeling after walking off the pitch after two unsuccessful Ashes series.”

      Ponting, combative as always, intends to lead from the front. He has begun the last two Ashes series with a century in the very first innings; while he averages an impressive 66 in Tests at the Gabba, that rises to 100 against the oldest enemy. If he has concerns about Michael Clarke’s dicky back, he’s keeping them well hidden; if he’s worried about giving the unheralded 28-year-old Xavier Doherty (84 first-class wickets in his entire career) his Test debut in the cauldron of an Ashes opener, he wasn’t about to admit it to a home media scenting blood.

      His England counterpart Strauss has had none of those last-gasp selectoral headaches. He’s known his first-choice XI since last summer. After wins in two of the three warm-up games this month, he will also feel his side are coming into form at the ideal time. “We’re all very keen to get going,” he says. “We’re in a good place as a side. At the same time we understand the size of the challenge ahead – not many teams come here and win. But we couldn’t be better placed mentally to take on that challenge. I’m fully confident that СКАЧАТЬ