E
ngland have
recovered from 1-0
down in an Ashes
series before. It
happened in 1981 and
2005, but I worry
they are not playing with enough
confidence to emulate those
comebacks.
The problem for this England
side is that already they are
pondering changes to the team and
Australia landed a few
psychological blows in the first
Test. I worry this could be a very
messy series for England and it is
important people understand how
difficult it is for some of these
players to raise themselves after
the World Cup.
People will say it is an Ashes
series and you should not need any
motivation to play against
Australia. But it is difficult to deal
with success, particularly if
winning the World Cup is the
biggest achievement of your
career. England must have some
honest conversations with players,
regardless of their seniority,
because what Joe Root needs next
week is 11 players desperate to be
out there. Let’s be honest, at
Edgbaston it looked like England
had only seven players. You can
say they had technical deficiencies
but I just looked at their mindset
and it was not right. It is why I
say they need honest chats.
If they say it was just a bad
week and they found it
difficult to come back once
the Aussies got on top,
then fine. That happens.
But if one or two have a
hangover from the World
Cup this is when David
Young, the team
psychologist, has to
do his work. Hedid a great job during the World
Cup, lifting the players after they
lost to Australia so they won their
next four games to take the trophy.
He now has to do a job for Root
and find out exactly where the
players are at and then report back
to the management. If one or two
players are struggling mentally
then do not pick them for Lord’s. It
is not a case of being dropped. It is
just being realistic that an Ashes
might be a little bit too much after
the pressure of winning a World
Cup.
In 2011, India won the World
Cup and lost their next Test series
on English soil. In 2015, Australia
won the World Cup and lost their
next Test series in England, too. It
happens. To think these players
are robots who can turn it on
whenever they want and can shut
out emotion is nonsense. Over the
next week England have to find the
ones who are too tired and need a
break. Root needs 11 completely
dedicated cricketers next week.
You have to be desperate to play
Test cricket, hit loads of balls in
the nets and work on your game.
Look at Rory Burns: he was
desperate to be a success and went
back to his old cricket coach and
scored a hundred in the first Test.
Do Jonny Bairstow, Jos Buttler
and Moeen Ali have that same state
of mind? Are they desperate to
find a way? Do they have the
energy in the tank to do so? I
would not be surprised if
they do not, which is why
this is a time for honesty.
A week off doing
nothing and thinking they
will come back and hit a red
ball better is wrong. Facing a
red ball is completely
different to facing a
white one. APlayers must
be fit, able and
desperate – or
let them rest
England
can still
fight back
from 1-0
down, but
must find a
cure for any
World Cup
hangover
that leaves
individuals
unable to
hit playing
heights
required
for Ashes
success
white ball does nothing. You can
hit through the line with
confidence. The red ball nibbles. It
moves around and you need a
technique to deal with it, move
your feet and survive.
It is a tough balancing act
because Buttler, and one or two
others, need a break, but they also
have to spend two or three days
with the coaches hitting red balls
to right what went wrong. If they
lack the desperation to do that then
they will struggle because Test
cricket is hard. If you have a bad
day in one-day cricket it matters
less. You have a couple of days off,
then the next game and you start
again. In Test cricket, you have one
bad day, and you know what? You
have four more to follow and it
pecks away at your mind.
This is the trick of management.
I have always said you look after
the person, not the player. Ben
Stokes and Root love playing
cricket and will just get on with it.
Others are struggling. This is
where the management have to
help the captain by working withthose individuals. I was lucky
because I had good management
around me in 2005. People give
me credit for the management,
but I had a great backroom team.
You need different people
looking after different groups of
individuals. If players had a
technical problem they went to
Duncan Fletcher for advice.
Matthew Maynard was great at
working with those who liked a
cigarette. He put his arm around
them and gave them some good
advice while relaxing having a
fag. Those who wanted a little bit
of b---s--- came to me.
We have to be careful. This
England team can surprise us all.
But I fear this series could go
badly wrong if they do not
address these problems. If they
are all fit, able and desperate to
play I would not make many
changes, apart from Jofra Archer
for James Anderson. Do not
panic. Sam Curran could come in
for a batsman and everyone else
gets pushed up a spot; he would
take the workload off some of the
bowlers. Jack Leach can offer that
left-arm threat to Steve Smith,
too. But I am not one for making
big changes after one Test unless
their minds are not right. That is
the most important thing.Comeback kings:
Michael Vaughan
celebrates Ashes
success in 2015
and (below) team
psychologist
David Young, who
needs to lift the
players as he did
during World CupGETTY IMAGESMICHAEL VAUGHAN
‘There must be honest
conversations because
Joe Root needs 11 players
in right frame of mind’
By Molly McElwee
Naomi Osaka’s exponential rise to
the top of the tennis world rankings
over the past 12 months has carried
her from relative obscurity to sec-
ond highest paid female athlete in
the world this year, trailing only
Serena Williams.
Tellingly, though, her $24.3 mil-
lion (£20 million) total earnings
mean she misses out on the top 100
combined male and female list, as
Williams remains the only woman
in tied 63rd.
The full female list, published by
Forb es yesterday, also showed a
downward trend in the earnings of
elite sportswomen. In a top 10 that
exclusively featured tennis players,
aside from the top three earners the
rest of the field experienced a drop
in income.Osaka’s huge surge in earnings hides lack of parity with male stars
FORBES RICH LIST
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wOsaka, 21, has seen her off-court
earnings rise from $1.5 million to
$16 million in just a year by Forb es’
calculations, and that does not
include her multi-million-dollar
Nike deal which was finalised after
the earnings cut-off, suggesting her
total could rise further in 2020.
Becoming world No 1 after win-
ning two grand slam titles up to
June 1 paved the way for the Japa-
nese breakout star’s rise in fortune.
She becomes only the fourth femaleathlete to make $20 million in a
12-month period, joining three
other tennis players: Williams,
Maria Sharapova and Li Na. But the
fact she remains outside the top 100
combined list speaks volumes
about the lack of parity in the value
placed on female athletes. While
just 15 sportswomen made $5 mil-
lion in 2019, about 1,300 male ath-
letes achieved the same figure.
Williams retained top spot for
the fourth consecutive year.The top earners
Total Prize Endorsements- S Williams $29.2m $4.2m $25m
- N Osaka $24.3m $8.3m $16m
- A Kerber $11.8m $5.3m $6.5m
- S Halep $10.2m $6.2m $4m
- S Stephens $9.6m $4.1m $5.5m
- C Wozniacki $7.5m $3.5m $4m
Top non-tennis player
Total Salary Endorsements - A Morgan $5.8m $250,00 $5.5m
14 *** Wednesday 7 August 2019 The Daily Telegraph
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