EDITORIAL: English cricket fans should look on the bright side
The enduring image of this Ashes series won’t be the heroics on the field of play, it won’t be the jubilation from the English players scoring a century or claiming a key wicket.
The story of this Ashes series will forever be etched in the expression on the face of England’s greatest competitor against Australia — Stuart Broad.
If only Broad were not in the commentary box for Channel 7 but out in the centre willing on his teammates to take it up to Australia, as he has done countless times over the years.
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By continuing you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy.Broad’s face, closed eyes, a hint of a grimace on his otherwise stoic face spoke for a nation in total despair as the pre-Ashes predictions came to life.
Broad’s despair came when Joe Root, England’s greatest ever batsman apparently, failed once again on Australian soil.
This guy is a legend at home but has failed to fire in Australia, dubbed by The West Australian as “Average Joe, Dud Root Down Under”, and the prediction from the newspaper in the city to host the Perth Test couldn’t have been more prescient.
Keep calm and carry on
Root’s success abroad and hopeless record in Australia is really just a snapshot of the broader issue with the England team, who have won just four Tests in Australia this century.
They promise a lot but always leave with excuses.
It’s a shame the English team has invested so much in the crazed form of the game they claim to have pioneered — Bazball, which is nothing more than an excuse for incompetence.
A get-out-of-jail-free card for making dumb adolescent choices without facing any accountability.
Australia’s ultra-aggressive, carefree Travis Head has been playing the same somewhat cavalier way since he cemented his position in the Australian team.
It’s not Bazball dumb though.
It’s not re-inventing the game, as the Poms claim to be doing. It’s living the same successful traditions of Doug Walters, David Hookes, Matthew Hayden and Adam Gilchrist, without the pretence of Bazball.
And the one key difference — the Australians who played with that aggression won games of cricket. Big games of cricket. The Poms are living in la la land.
Their fans will kill Bazball forever after this series.
To those feeling downhearted today, we say keep those upper lips stiff. Keep calm and carry on.
Yes, it was devastating. Embarrassing. Staggering, really, squandering what looked like a comfortable lead in a matter of 30 minutes.
It was bewilderingly bad, brainless cricket. The good news is, it’s over for now. Quick, but perhaps not so painless.
Visiting fans have been down here in the depths of cricketing despair before. Many, many times. Think of it as a blessing in disguise.
Instead of sitting on a hard plastic chair and developing melanomas while your team destroys itself through its witless Bazball kamikaze mission, you have the opportunity to get out and see a little more of this beautiful country you find yourself in.
