‘Australia needs an urgent review of their cricket setup’

MELBOURNE - The looming Ashes defeat in the fourth Test against England could be just the kick in the pants that Australia needs, a noted cricket columnist has said.

Writing in the Courier Mail, Robert Craddock said: “An Australian victory in this Ashes series would have only served to heighten Australia’s belief that their system is going fine when it’s clearly not producing young players of Test pedigree.”

“They need an urgent review of their setup,” he added.

Craddock further believes that no team in the past 25 years has come Down Under better prepared or with a stronger collective focus than the visiting England squad.

“If England win, they deserve it. They banned wives from the tour where Australia took them everywhere. They chose an XI and stuck to them while Australia were forced to experiment,” Craddock wrote.

“They arrived for this series even before Australia. They train hard. They catch well. They rarely bowl no-balls.”

“They are not a great team, but they play for each other - something we have not been able to say about any England team since Mike Gatting’s men came here 24 years ago,” he added. (ANI)