Lloyd on the Ashes: Fabulous facilities help practice make perfect (19 November 1998)

19 November 1998

Lloyd on the Ashes: Fabulous facilities help practice make perfect

By David Lloyd

THE talking, the banter, the criticisms stop here. Australia and England now go head-to-head. Our boys are ready and fully aware that they are about to start the most important 25 days of Test cricket in their careers. For them to represent their country in an Ashes series is a lifetime's ambition.

It is nice to be underdogs, and for my part I hope we are as "poor" a team as Mike Gatting's side back in 1986-87.

According to the Australian media we have little chance of success and, up to now, when we have done well we are relegated to the inside pages of newspapers.

I arrived in Australia a week later than the rest of the touring party, due to our expedition with the one-day squad in Bangladesh, and I was eager to take the reins and get down to business in Western Australia.

The first thing that strikes you about the city of Perth is its openness, cleanliness and thoroughly modern outlook. And what a stadium the WACA is, with its three-tier stands, towering floodlights and every modern amenity that you can think of with the comfort of the spectator of utmost importance.

Families are well catered for with grassed play areas and a bouncy castle overlooking the pitch. From a player's perspective, the changing rooms are very comfortable, and have video viewing rooms, physiotherapy and fitness areas, and you cannot help but be envious of the practice pitches. There were never fewer than five practice wickets available, and during our 10-day stay in Perth we moved stations three times to ensure that the nets were always in top condition.

These facilities are not restricted to the WACA. The majority of club grounds in the Perth area have the same, all in pristine condition, and indeed, our fixture at Lilac Hill, the home of Midland-Guildford Cricket Club, attracted 11,500 people. There were 82 hospitality marquees but, more importantly, there were eight enclosed practice pitches away from the main playing area and, wait for it, we were playing on the third XI pitch. Can I stress that Midland-Guildford are your typical "local club".

Add to all this the time the players of Western Australia have to use all these facilities to prepare for their well spaced out games, and I am led to believe you have every chance of achieving an optimum performance all of the time - clunk-click every trip.

I know we have strong debate in Britain about the structure of our game from grass roots to Test arena, but as you can probably tell from my scribbling, we must pay absolute attention to practice facilities all along that route.

The administration, too, works like clockwork and is well structured, with everybody knowing his or her role from top to bottom, minus the clamour of being seen to be doing something important. There is no "You can't park here, you can't practise here, you can't come in here". Everything is focused on helping the team to perform.

At the WACA we fell into the same trap as most teams who visit here, whether it be international or state team: we generally bowled too short. The discipline at the WACA is to pitch the ball up on a strict off stump or just outside line, with a surprise fast, straight bouncer, used sparingly. And our fielding was unacceptable.

Our batting, though, was good, with the majority of our frontliners getting scores and spending time in the middle. John Crawley had an opportunity to open the batting, and he looked commanding in his second-innings 65.

It is interesting to note that of his seven first-class centuries last season, four of them were made while opening the batting for Lancashire.

The pitch stayed true throughout and the game ended in a rather tame draw. In the inevitable chit-chat after the game Justin Langer was reported as saying that England were boring. To answer that criticism, this was our first game, we were a batsman down, as always we set out trying to win, but when this became unrealistic, the next best option was not to lose. We were into our first wave of 'Pommie bashing', which every English touring side since the Ark have had to endure. It is all great fun, if a little predictable, with all the former players having their twopennies worth, with references back to Illy's side, Denness's side, and even Captain Cook's lot.

On to South Australia next, and again, wonderful facilities at the Adelaide Oval. We elected to bat first on a slightly damp surface. That proved to be the wrong decision, as we had a deficit on the first innings of 120. Our bowling though was much better, with stricter lines, and our fielding looked sharper, but still with work to do.

The game will be remembered for the partnership between Graham Thorpe and Mark Ramprakash. Their unbroken 377 was the highest by any touring side to Australia, and they scored 194 between lunch and tea on the fourth day. They both played with freedom and touch, and it was an absolute joy to watch.

Our next port of call was Cairns, Queensland. We worked hard to ensure we acclimatised here prior to the first Test in Brisbane, rather than preparing in Tasmania. It was a shock to a number of our players, with temperatures soaring to over 100 degrees and humidity to match.

It is imperative in these conditions to take in adequate quantities of water and energy drinks, and the backroom staff administered this very stringently.

The area had monsoon-type deluges. This meant the pitch was under-prepared, which was a pity. The ball hardly bounced at all throughout the game and it was obviously going to be a low-scoring affair.

We won with our last-wicket pair, Alan Mullally and Robert Croft, together. Twelve lbw decisions in the game tell the story of a bowler-friendly pitch. We worked hard, fought hard, and got the result we deserved.

Source :: Electronic Telegraph (https://www.telegraph.co.uk)