Strauss urges mates to aim for ‘The Holy Grail’ of English cricket

MELBOURNE - England cricket captain has urged his mates to strive to win “The Holy Grail” of cricket - The Ashes series - by emerging victorious in the Sydney cricket Test against Australia, which begins from January 2.

Though England is understandably elated at being 2-1 in the series, Strauss believes that the icing on the cake will be a 3-1 score at the end of the Sydney Test.

“Winning the Ashes in Australia has always been a Holy Grail for English sides. We have not won the Ashes yet, but we have retained the urn, which was one of our primary goals. Our objective was to come out here and win the series. We have not achieved that yet. It is reassuring to know the Ashes are going to remain in England for another couple of years, but it will leave a very sour taste in the mouth if we are not able to go on and convert our position into a series win in Sydney, ” The Independent quoted Strauss, as saying.

Strauss is the first England captain to have stewarded his side to two Ashes wins, both home and away, since Mike Brearley.

“There is a lot of confidence in our camp and we need to make sure we channel that in the right way and come out and play the same brand of cricket in Sydney,” he said.

He added: “In reality the job is a long way off being done. This is one series and as a side we have still got a lot of goals we want to achieve. English cricket is not just about winning the Ashes. We have to look forward to the future and get our team up those rankings and to world No 1 at some stage. That is the ultimate goal for us.” (ANI)