Impact: Jimmy Anderson is hoping to gain some momentum by winning the remaining games in the one-day series against Australia Photo: GETTY IMAGESThe TV footage was distressing to see, and all the more so because we were in the same country and felt a connection to this city. We played a Test in Brisbane in November, and spent a week eating in the restaurants and wandering around the city.
Now we are back here, for Sunday’s one-day international, and it is heart-wrenching to see the evidence of what happened. It’s most obvious down by the riverbanks: the Gabba is quite near the river, and when we are driving across we can see the watermarks on the bridges, and the trees that have been killed.
The centre was not as badly affected as some other areas, but there is still quite a bit of cleaning up to do. Now that the weather here has taken a turn for the better, people have begun work on what will be a long process of restoration.
When the guys are starting to whinge about feeling tired, it sometimes takes a reality check to kick you back into gear, and remind you how lucky you are to be playing cricket for your country. Now we’ve only got three games left before we go home, which is not really a hardship for us.
It’s true that, when I came back from my short break at home, I could see hints of tiredness in the squad. For guys who have played pretty much every game, people like Andrew Strauss and Jonathan Trott, the tour has been hard on them physically and mentally. Hopefully I brought some energy into the team in the last game, not just with my bowling but in the field as well.
I’ve forgotten all about the Ashes now, it just feels like such a long time ago. I’m not denying that retaining the urn was a great thing for us, but while some people might see this one-day series as meaningless, that’s not our view at all.
Not only do we want to gain some momentum going into the World Cup, but we want to keep climbing in the one-day rankings as well. Our goal is to be No 1 in all forms of the game, so there’s still a lot riding on the series.
Of course, three nights at home between this tour and setting off for Bangladesh is not ideal. But we knew at the start of this trip that it would be a long one. Now, most of the guys are looking forward to arriving in the sub-continent, because it’s very exciting to be going to a World Cup.
Having said that, I welcome the fact that the next Ashes series won’t be scheduled alongside the World Cup, because a tour of Australia is such a big series that it does take a lot out of you. You want to be as fresh as you possibly can for such a big tournament.
Look at the last World Cup. We left Australia on a high note, after winning the one-day series, but the whole tour had been a long and draining experience for us and people wanted to get home.
The tournament in the West Indies proved to be disappointing. Duncan Fletcher resigned as coach and we had a few disciplinary things going on, so there were some distractions.
This time, we’re much better prepared. The balance of the side is looking really good, when you think that we’ve got Graeme Swann, Tim Bresnan and Stuart Broad still to come back. Trott has brought his ability to tick over in the middle part of the innings, and we have options with our part-time bowlers.
If we can get some overs out of Trott and Paul Collingwood it does give us more options: we can look at the conditions for each match and decide whether we bring in another batter or specialist bowler.
This World Cup will be played in three countries and there won’t be a single formula for success. Teams are going to have to adapt, and it could well be the most versatile squad that comes out on top.
James Anderson: seeing results of the Queensland floods has put our minor problems into perspective James,Anderson,seeing,results,Queensland,floods,minor,problems,perspective http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/cricket/international/england/8290350/James-Anderson-seeing-results-of-the-Queensland-floods-has-put-our-minor-problems-into-perspective.html
No comments:
Post a Comment