England fined for slow over rate

The Daily Telegraph revealed last month that Andrew Strauss, the England team director of cricket, had sent the Test venues an email which was interpreted as calling for pitches to be on the slower side. The Ashes 2015, which England won 3-2, earned the dubious record of being the shortest in the vast history of the tournament, ending in just 18 days.

“That’s fine but he doesn’t know what goes on behind the scenes and we’ll keep it like that”.

England refused to let the small matter of a crushing innings defeat in the final Investec Test get in the way of celebrating their 3-2 Ashes success.

It is the Aussies, though, that are the enemy for now as Edwards and co hope the rain can stay away for long enough to complete at least a five-over match and not hand over the Ashes courtesy of a point each for a washout.

“I haven’t had the opportunity to speak to him yet about it but we know the number of high quality performances we’ve seen from him over the years”.

But in a brief post-match interview with Test Match Special, he hinted that he too was considering his future and said he would “take stock” in the coming weeks.

“I think Jos (Buttler) summed it up yesterday, saying we were probably five per cent off and didn’t quite have the same intensity from both sides, but Australia played better than we did”.

Few will quibble with that after a series result which has taken England up to third in the world rankings, just behind Australia with South Africa at the top.

The real difference between the teams, the reason why England beat Australia, is that England won the most important moments.

It was a downbeat end to a rollercoaster series for England, who at times looked a talented team on the rise and at others surrendered without a fight. The game has changed since I retired and players who are brought up playing T20 cricket in the Big Bash are focused on going at the ball hard, dominating the bowling and trying to score at five runs per over.

“It doesn’t matter whether you play one Test or 100 Tests for Australia“.

“Joe Root has been outstanding and led our batting, he has been our leading light and he thoroughly deserves to win man of the series”, Cook said. The next three were over in two-and-a-half and three days.

“In my time I can’t remember the captain not getting the side he wants”, he said. We’re unbeaten here and generally get a very good crowd.

“I think the more players play on wickets that have something in them, the better they will get on those wickets”.

Australia have taken pride in the way home pitches are prepared by groundsmen largely independent of national team influence, meaning that each ground has a chance to develop its own consistent characteristics. Global cricketers play all over the world and they have to learn to play in different conditions.