BROAD HAPPY TO BE THE ASHES VILLAIN
ENGLISH strike bowler Stuart Broad is urging Australians to again cast him as a villain.
Broad, pictured, says the hostile crowd treatment he cops spurs him on, as does being sledged.
He was painted Australian cricket’s public enemy No.1 from the moment he refused to walk when edging a catch that rebounded from the keeper to first slip in a 2013 Test at Trent Bridge.
“I’m an Englishman in Australia, it’s only natural to expect that,” he said.
“It’s actually a really exciting prospect, because not often do you walk out on a sports field . . . to a really hostile environment. You walk out and go, ‘whoa, I’m alive here, this is what it’s all about’.
“It’s part of the reason why the Ashes is so special.
“But if you can’t deal with that, should you be playing top level sport?”
The 109-Test veteran said the Ashes environments brought out the best in him — he has more Australian Test wickets (84) than against any other nation.
“I love it,” he said. “I’m probably the worst warm-up game bowler in the world — I need that extra bit of spice in games . . . that niggle.
“And I think that’s why I have probably saved some of my best performances for Ashes series.”
Broad said he was trying to instil his competitive Ashes instincts into his teammates.
“To make it to the top level a lot of people are naturally competitive anyway,” he said.
“You look around at most of the best cricketers that I’ve been a fan of, like the (Glenn) McGraths, the Steve Waughs, the Darren Goughs, people like this — they are always in a battle.
“They’re never happy with the opposition just having an easy time.
“We lost the Ashes for pretty much my whole childhood because the Aussies probably had more competitive characters.
“But when the likes of ‘KP’ (Kevin Pietersen) came around, Matt Prior, Michael Vaughan, Paul Collingwood, these sort of guys who stood up to the Australians, looked them in the eye and said, ‘we’re here for a battle’, we have had more success.”