72 2GM Thursday November 25 2021 | the times
Sport
In terms of preparations for an Ashes
tour down under, the series in 2010-11 is
often held up as the gold standard.
England played three first-class
matches on that trip — beating West-
ern Australia and drawing with South
Australia, when rain probably prevent-
ed another victory, before thrashing
Australia A by ten wickets in Hobart
with a second-string attack (the main
bowlers had been sent to Brisbane in
readiness for the first Test).
The match against a strong Australia
A side, which included Phillip Hughes
(it is seven years on Saturday since he
died so tragically), Usman Khawaja,
Steve Smith and Tim Paine, was shown
on television in Australia and England.
Andrew Strauss, the England cap-
tain, wrote in his tour diary that it sent
out a “very strong message”, with Ian
Bell making 192, to add to two centuries
from Strauss in the earlier matches. It
was some statement.
It was little surprise that England
went on to win that Ashes series 3-1, but
Smith in line
to get job of
vice-captain
Cricket
Elizabeth Ammon
Steve Smith is a step closer to becoming
the Australia vice-captain after being
interviewed by a specially formed
Cricket Australia selection committee.
With the present vice-captain, Pat
Cummins, expected to be promoted
after the surprise resignation of Tim
Paine over the emergence of sexually
explicit text messages, Smith is in line
for a controversial return to a leader-
ship position, having been sacked as
captain for his role in the ball-tamper-
ing scandal in 2018.
Both players were interviewed by a
five-man panel that included the
selectors George Bailey and Tony
Dodemaide and the CA chief executive,
Nick Hockley. Justin Langer, the
Australia head coach, was not part of
the interview process but is understood
to have recommended the appoint-
ments of Cummins and Smith.
The role of vice-captain is not
normally a significant appointment but
as Cummins is a fast bowler it is expect-
ed, even if he stays injury free, that he
will be rested for at least one of the five
Ashes Tests that will be played over six
weeks, leaving Smith to take charge of
the team.
The decision to appoint Smith, 32,
would prove divisive in some quarters
given the public backlash the ball-
tampering scandal caused in Australia.
Smith was banned from cricket for one
year and was not allowed to hold a posi-
tion of responsibility for 24 months.
6 The ECB will publish a 12-point
action plan today to tackle racism and
discrimination that will focus on diver-
sity training and a new whistleblowing
process. It will also mandate that all ve-
nues for professional games must have
alcohol-free areas and offer halal food.
Vaughan stood down by BBC, News page 9S
haun Murphy has
claimed that amateur
snooker players should
not be allowed to compete
in professional tournaments
after he suffered a shock
first-round defeat in the UK
Championship against the
Chinese teenager Si Jiahui.
Murphy’s rant, in which
he complained that it was
unfair for him to face a
player who did not have the
pressure of competing for
his livelihood, came two
years after the 39-year-old
attempted to qualify for
golf ’s Open Championship
as an amateur.
Murphy, who won the UK
Championship in 2008, was
beaten 6-5 in York by Si, 19,
who fell off the main tour at
the end of last season but
entered the 128-man event
as an amateur.
“I have lost to someone
who shouldn’t even be in
the building,” Murphy
told BBC Radio 5 Live. “I
don’t know why we as a
sport allow amateurs to
compete in professional
tournaments.
“This is our livelihood.
This is our living. He played
like a man who does not
have a care in the world,
because he does not have a
care in the world.
“He deserved his victory,
[but] amateurs should not
be allowed in professional
tournaments — the end.”
There was support for
Murphy from Neil
Robertson, the defendingchampion from Australia,
who faces an amateur, John
Astley, today. “When you’re
playing one of the Chinese
boys, some of them are
amateurs, but some are as
good as anybody in the top
50 in the world,” Robertson
said “They’re on a free hit
at a pro, so I completely
agree with what Shaun’s
saying there, because it is
very dangerous.”
World Snooker Tour
(WST) said it “strongly
disagreed” with Murphy,insisting that the
opportunity for young
amateur players to compete
on the biggest stage formed
a crucial part of their
development. WST said in a
statement: “Many elite
amateur players like Si
Jiahui train and compete
full-time in the hope of
earning a guaranteed
tour place, therefore they
are competing under
significant pressure with
no guarantees.”
Murphy, who plays golffrom a scratch handicap,
told Golf Monthly of his
attempt to qualify for the
2019 Open Championship:
“I think the one thing I do
have going for me is that I
already have a full-time job.
Golf isn’t my livelihood.
“Relative to the other
players I will be playing
against, it doesn’t really
matter to me if I win or
lose. I won’t be under the
pressure they are under.”
Murphy failed to advance
to the final qualifying.I should not
have to face
amateurs,
says Murphy
MIKE EGERTON/PA
Murphy tried to
play with the pros
as an amateur
golfer, below, but
losing to Si was
too much for himthing that always strikes you when
you arrive in Australia is the light,”
Strauss wrote in his diary. That
light is harsher and brighter. The
pitches bounce more than English
players are used to,
demanding mainly cross-batted
shots early on before driving be-
comes easier once the ball softens.
A very different game is required.
Preparing for it is no exact
science, and we should never under-
estimate the resourcefulness of theAshes set to be battle of the underdone
you could argue that they did not start
it that well, conceding a first-innings
deficit of 221 at the Gabba. Strauss made
a first-innings duck and could so easily
have been out first ball of the second
innings, surviving a mighty close
leg-before shout, before going on to
make a hundred, along with Alastair
Cook’s monumental 235 not out and
Jonathan Trott’s 135 not out, resulting
in a draw in that first Test.
That tour, however, seems to belong
in a different age; now bloated sched-
ules (and Covid) mean calendar space
and decent opposition have become too
hard to find.
England attempted to play three
matches before their most recent tour
in 2017-18 but, with Sheffield Shield
matches going on at the same time,
came up against tyros mainly. The
result was that England were woefully
underprepared for what was to come,
prompting Trevor Bayliss, the head
coach at the time, to say: “Australia and
England should be getting together and
having at least one match against the
A team before each series. I know when
Australia go to England there are
similar questions asked.”
At the time Bayliss would not have
been thinking about England A (or the
Lions, as they are now called) as
opposition, but then he could never
have envisaged that a pandemic would
strike either. So it is that England havehad to take their own opposition to
Australia, trying to play (without those
who were at the T20 World Cup)
against the Lions in a 12-a-side, three-
day match that lasted only 29 overs in
Brisbane because of rain, before a four-
day affair against them next week.
It is far from ideal, but then this debate
about preparation has been raging for a
long time. It was Duncan Fletcher who,
as head coach between 1999 and 2007,
first began playing more than 11 players
in such fixtures, thus depriving them of
first-class status, but arguing that it was
more important for
as many players as
possible to be involved
than some archaic notion of
classification. Fletcher pre-
ferred his players to reach a Test
series a little underdone.
Cook had a different opinion
in 2010-11, when Andy Flower
was the England head coach.
“Making these games 11-a-
side first-class games has
helped everyone,” Cook said.
“Your first-class record is at
stake. When it’s a 13-a-side game
you just think you have got your
net in when you come off the field.
This time by making it really clear
it has helped us.”
The key point is that Australia
does appear to require more prep-
aration than other countries. “Themodern player. Even before that 2010-
11 trip England had done some inten-
sive practice at Loughborough, using
the ProBatter bowling machine, which
has a real bowler’s run-up and delivery
on a screen at the front. “No other team
in the world had ProBatter, and it
helped to add to the feeling that maybe
we were slightly ahead of the game for
a change,” Strauss wrote.
It should be noted that Australia are
also holding an internal match next
week at the same ground at which
England are now. Indeed, if anyone is
worried about England’s preparations
for the first Test that starts on Decem-
ber 8 it is also worth glancing at Austra-
lia’s, given that they have played only
two Tests this year — in January too,
losing the series to a depleted India —
compared with England’s 12. Australia
were due to play Afghanistan this
month but that was cancelled.
England’s recent record in Australia
is abysmal, having lost nine of their past
ten Tests there, the only exception a
2017 draw in Melbourne. But with Ben
Stokes returning there is more hope,
and, as Shane Warne said recently: “No
one fears Australia any more. Coming
to Australia, everyone used to go: ‘Oh,
we’re going to have to be at our best to
even compete.’ Now they just believe
they can beat Australia — every side.”
Even England? Not long until we
find out.England need time to
adjust to harsh light and
bounce but home side’s
last Test was in January,
writes Steve James
When England got it right
Warm-ups for 2010-11 Ashes series win
Nov 5-7 Three-day match: Western
Australia 242-8dec (S Broad 3 for 47) and
223 (G Swann 4 for 101); England XI 223-
8dec (K Pietersen 58) and 243-4
(A Strauss 120 not out, below). England XI
won by six wickets.
Nov 11-13 Three-day match: England XI
288-8dec (P Collingwood 94) and 240-
1dec (A Cook 111 not out); South Australia
221 (G Swann 4 for 68) and 48-2 (J
Anderson 2 for 23). Match drawn.
Nov 17-20 Four-day match:
Australia A 230 (C Tremlett 4 for
54) and 301 (T Bresnan 4 for 86);
England 523 (I Bell 192) and 11-0.
England XI won by ten wickets.
Warm-ups for 2020-21 Ashes
Nov 23-25 Three-day match v
England Lions, Wellington Point
Nov 30-Dec 3 Four-day match v
England Lions, Brisbane