CRICKET: "Short on talent and stars, packed with injured and inexperienced players, scarred by previous defeats." That, in a nutshell, is how England's newly arrived Ashes squad are being viewed by 99.9 per cent of the Australian public.
Even as Nasser Hussain's men underwent their first serious practice session here yesterday, the Australian media were roundly dismissing them as no-hopers. "Largely second-rate English sportsmen," howled Malcolm Conn, cricket correspondent of The Australian newspaper. Most observers believe the home side, after seven successive series wins, will scarcely have to raise a sweat to make it eight.
And if that was not enough, Australia's captain Steve Waugh made a long-awaited return to form in Sharjah yesterday, scoring 103 - his first century since his unbeaten 157 against England at the Oval in September 2001 - in the third Test against Pakistan.
Waugh's England counterpart has, so far anyway, refused to rise to the media baiting here. Hussain has been known to run on a short fuse but, for the time being, is following the line that while respecting Australia, he remains confident the Ashes can be regained.
As to the charge of inexperience, he has attempted to turn it around by suggesting that England will benefit from the fact that only five of the squad - Hussain, Alec Stewart, Mark Butcher, John Crawley and Darren Gough - have played Test cricket before in Australia. The rest do not carry the scars of previous heavy defeats.
Two of his least experienced recruits, Simon Jones and Steve Harmison, have created particular interest. Hussain has spoken about their raw pace and ability to make opposing batsmen jump, and the Australians are keen to know exactly how fast they are. While Jones is doing little more than gently turning over his arm as he continues to recover from a side strain, Harmison reached something close to full pace yesterday.
But for England to have any chance, they will need all their key players fit. Gough and Andrew Flintoff, rehabilitating after, respectively, knee and hernia operations, will not play in tomorrow's opening match of the tour, against an ACB Chairman's XI. While their absence was expected, of greater concern is Michael Vaughan's continuing discomfort following knee surgery more than five weeks ago.
Vaughan scored four Test centuries during the summer and his opening partnership with Marcus Trescothick is perhaps England's greatest strength. They will be anxious that Vaughan is fit to play in at least two of the warm-up matches before the first Test in Brisbane on November 7th.
No England player has suffered more anguish at the hands of Australia than Stewart: six series played, six series lost. But he, like his captain, believes that sequence can end. "I don't feel any mental scars from previous matches against Australia," Stewart said.
"We were hammered by Australia in 2001 - our 4-1 defeat was the most one-sided series I've played in - but we've improved since then."
England's opening match will be a gentle, social affair at Lilac Hill, 10 miles outside Perth, which was Stewart's home ground for eight years in the 80s when he appeared for the Midland-Guildford club. He was 18 when he first played grade cricket and now, 21 years later, Stewart is an England wicketkeeper whose powers remain undiminished - a topical issue this week.
"The age thing is an easy line," Stewart said. "If a 39-year-old drops a catch or lets in a goal, it's because of his age. David Seaman has copped a bit of flak but he's been a fantastic goalkeeper and, if he'd made the mistake against Macedonia 10 years ago, people would have said it was just one of those things. We're great at ignoring all the good things players have done. And besides, the results of my annual eye tests tell me they're as good as ever." Pakistan need another 82 runs to avoid the follow-on in the third Test against Australia in Sharjah after the captain Steve Waugh's unbeaten 103 and Ricky Ponting's 150 helped set a first-innings total of 444.
