(Photo: Getty Images)
By Peter Hayter
Michael Vaughan, the England skipper who led them to the Ashes victory of 2005 considered by many to be their greatest ever, has a short, sharp message for the current players to take onto the field for the first Ashes Test in Brisbane on November 23 – breathe deep, slow it down, chill out.
The Ashes virgins in Joe Root’s squad continue their education in the opening match of the winter tour against Western Australia in Perth this week.
David Warner’s declaration of “war” notwithstanding, the early banter down under has been mild in comparison with previous blathering.
But Vaughan knows the noise and hostility England will face on the opening morning of the series will ensure the home of Queensland CA lives up to its other name of the ‘Gabbattoir’ and, for the nine new boys, it will be nothing like they have ever experienced. Root, too, is sailing into unchartered waters, as this will be his first Ashes Test as captain. Now Vaughan has drawn on his own experience of the “shock” of Brisbane, which he believes will hit them from the moment they get there, to offer his counsel to his fellow Yorkshireman and his players as to how to withstand it.
“Brisbane is the most hostile venue in Australia,” Vaughan says. “The rest of the grounds you feel like you’re playing against eleven. In Brisbane it’s 40,000. It can completely dislodge a team and if the Aussies come out on fire and blow you away in Brisbane, it’s very difficult to come back. Everything happens a bit quicker, so the biggest advice is take massive deep breaths and slow it down. Take time between balls, try to use every single second possible to slow it down.
“It’s a different environment, the build-up, the nets. The Aussie supporters stand at the back of the nets and give you grief, so it really is a week where minds are tested. They seem to have a good skill in keeping the England fans away from each other so you don’t get that level of support you get in Adelaide or Perth where England fans seem to be together.
“It’s only a small thing but it matters a lot. At Brisbane you’re in this dungeon dressing room, you walk out and the heat hits you, and then the crowd is right on top of you.
“Somehow, someone’s got to sprinkle dust over the team, and make them believe it’s just a normal day’s play – 22 yards, red ball. Just one day.”
In last week’s Cricket Paper, Ashes veteran Steve Harmison warned that those players must learn to cope with the intense pressure they will face or risk being “gobbled up by it”.
And Vaughan concedes that applies specifically to the opening two hours, which he feels can set the tone for the whole series. “It’s that first session when both sides go flying into each other,” he says. “Then you get to lunch, have some nice chicken and go right, let’s chill out now.
“England have got to try to chill out, have their lunch before the start.”
Vaughan knows whereof he speaks, for he still has vivid memories of the first day of the 2002-03 series, when Nasser Hussain invited the Aussies to bat first, saw Simon Jones wreck his knee on the re-laid outfield, then suffered the taunts of a fiercely partisan crowd as their team racked up 364-2.
Harmison does, too. He will never forget the grotesque wide he bowled to Andrew Flintoff at second slip with the opening delivery of the 2006-07 whitewash, no matter how hard he tries.
Vaughan also stresses care must be taken not to terrify those having their first taste of an Ashes Test Down Under.
“It’s a fine margin. The one thing you don’t want to do is scare the life out of them. I was there in 2002/03 and the senior pros scared the life out of me, ‘McGrath never bowls a bad ball; Warne’s got 15 deliveries; the crowd are on top of you…’ How am I supposed to play against this lot?
“But it is important they offer realism to the players. It can’t be ultra positive. It can’t be, ‘Oh, it’s great, it’s so enjoyable’ because it’s not. That’s not being real. You’re going there to potentially do something special. The Aussies haven’t lost there in 30-odd years. So realis-tically we’re not under any pressure.
“The crowd will be expecting us to roll over; they’ll expect Mitchell Starc to blow us away. They’ll expect us to look intimidated. Everyone expects us to lose. But can we surprise people? Can we play in a controlled, mature fashion? That’s what I’ll be looking for.”
And if England can cope with the Brisbane heat, Vaughan believes they stand a real chance of exceeding expectations, as, ultimately, he managed to do on his Ashes debut tour.
Following Australia’s crushing 384- run win in that calamitous first Test, one front-page asked: “Is there anyone left in England who can still play cricket?”
Vaughan showed there was, making three centuries and a total of 633 runs at an average of 63.30.
“It will be tough, it will be hard,” he accepts. “And I am concerned about England’s batting. What they need to realise is you cannot just throw your hands at every delivery. You have to earn the right to get to that next spell, that half-hour period.
“There’s always that thinking when you watch them that they could collapse. But I look at this Australian side; I think Starc is the standout in terms of creating a bit of X-factor. I think Josh Hazlewood will offer that little bit of movement with the new ball. But James Pattinson is a massive loss and England should be able to face that attack.
“They don’t have a Shane Warne where you think he could bowl you a ball at anytime that could be magical.
“There’s nothing, I don’t think, in this Australian attack that you shouldn’t be able to prepare for.”
Maybe so. But, as Vaughan, Harmison and most others contend, it is the question of whether they can prepare for everything else they are bound to face that holds the key to their chances.
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