UK press laments third Ashes Test humiliation at WACA

LONDON - The British press has criticized England’s dismal performance in the third Ashes Test at the WACA Ground in Perth, likening the team’s pitiful display to those of England teams of old.

Sun reporter John Etheridge was scathing in his appraisal of England’s performance in Perth, describing the battering they suffered as their first taste of the intimidation experienced by the previous generation of England cricketers.

“England were eaten up and spat out. Bullied and battered, roughed up and roasted. And they could not even begin to cope,” Etheridge reported.

Etheridge was brutal in his analysis of the hurting England side, adamant that no excuse for their display would be accepted.

“People can come up with all sorts of explanations for this defeat - complacency, the arrival of the Wags, Stuart Broad’s absence through injury. But the plain fact is that England were thrashed in the Third Test by 267 runs because they cowed in the face of Australian physical and verbal aggression on a lively pitch.”

BBC cricket correspondent Jonathan Agnew said: “England are going to have to completely review their line-up - they need to think hard about the balance and make-up of the side,” Agnew reported.

“Do they really, honestly think that four bowlers is the best way to go, particularly if there is grass on the pitch and Graeme Swann is going to be ineffective? I believe the answer to that is no.”

Derek Pringle of The Daily Telegraph (UK), said: “England’s Perth defeat was like going back in time to past Ashes hammerings by Australia. Being at Perth over the last few days was like being transported back in the Tardis to somewhere between 1994 and 2008, so vast has been the gulf between the sides.”

Guardian cricket writer Vic Marks said: “Ponting’s side blew the tourists away with four quick bowlers, but they may well need a spinner at the MCG.”

He added: “For once, Ponting had been proven right. He said that England would find conditions in Perth ‘alien’. Well, there times when the middle order batted like men from Mars.” (ANI)