? England will 'focus on becoming the No1 Test side'
? Praise for Kevin Pietersen's contributions
Andrew Strauss resumes the captaincy of an England Test side that after their Ashes success have now become, in the words of Sri Lanka's coach, Stuart Law, "the toughest deal on the planet". But the toughest deal in Cardiff will do for the next five days as England aim to ensure there will be no Ashes hangover against Sri Lanka.
More than four months have passed since England were last on a Test outfield together, and an exuberant team sprinkler dance marked their winning of the Ashes, and that should be long enough to remove any lingering sense of a triumphant homecoming.
Strauss certainly thinks so. "It's not a homecoming," he said. "If we were going to have homecomings we would have had them a long time ago. This is the start of a new cycle, the start of a busy and difficult summer, hopefully a step forward to becoming the No1 Test side in the world. We achieved quite an important goal for us as a side to win out there in Australia but our goals now have turned towards this summer and beyond."
Strauss's retirement from one-day international cricket (he may play the occasional one-day game for Middlesex) leaves the Test captaincy as his only role. He smiled broadly as he was asked if this would bring more pressure to the job. England captains can devise as many strategies as they like to prolong their career, but the end when it comes can sometimes come swiftly.
"I have always felt that pressure," he said. "We are all under pressure all the time, both to keep our place in the side and also to take the England team forward. Longevity in my Test career was not the main reason I have given up one-day cricket. With less on my plate I suppose I could go on longer, but it is very dangerous to look too far into the future.
"All I can concentrate on is trying to do as well as I can for the time being, and mentally I feel very fresh. In a way it is quite a nice thing to concentrate on one format and make sure my game is in as good order as possible for one format, rather than drifting between all formats."
Strauss has had first-hand experience of Sri Lanka's ability already this season, having finished on the losing side for Middlesex against the tourists at Uxbridge despite his first-innings hundred. "They are a very good side. In both games they have played they have come back from difficult positions in the match to win those games. We will not be taking that lightly."
As if to remind him that captaincy demands endless reassessments and readjustments, no matter how successful a side might be, Strauss was forced to clarify his comments about Kevin Pietersen: a man who likes to be loved, but did not quite know how to go about it. If the remark had only added to Pietersen's insecurity, his captain addressed it by ladling on the praise pretty thickly.
"The point I was trying to make was that everything KP does is analysed to the nth degree and the perception of him outside the dressing room is often very different to the perception inside the dressing room," he said. "He has been a massive part of our success over the past five or six years and I have no doubt whatsoever that he will continue to be so for a number of years to come.
"He seems in a really good place mentally. He has always been very driven, and I don't think anything has changed in that respect, but he also seems very relaxed, and when he has that relaxed air about him plus that inner drive that is a good recipe for him to go on and have a very good summer."
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2011/may/25/andrew-strauss-england-sri-lanka1
Pakistan cricket betting scandal Egypt Botswana Sir Michael Lyons Robert Schumann Energy
No comments:
Post a Comment