STRAUSS OUITS TOUR AS WIFE FIGHTS CANCER
England team director andrew Strauss will not return to the ashes after his wife was diagnosed with cancer.
Strauss departed the tour after Joe Root’s team went 2-0 down in adelaide, with his final act being to lift the curfews imposed over Jonny Bairstow’s meeting of heads with australian opener Cameron Bancroft in a bar.
The 40-year-old was scheduled to be back for the final two Tests of the five-match series, but is to remain in the UK due to his australian wife Ruth’s ill health. The couple have two sons — Sam, 12, and luca, nine.
an ECB spokesman said: ‘andrew Strauss will not return to the ashes this winter. His wife Ruth is going through a series of medical tests before Christmas. His family need andrew’s full support at this time.’
On the field, England headed into the pivotal third Test in Perth knowing defeat would result in them relinquishing the urn in the shortest time possible.
and Root went into the match having to cope with more off-field problems after Jimmy anderson appeared to blame England’s coaches for his poor bowling with the new ball in adelaide.
Root, beset by own goals on this tour, was back on the defensive after his vice-captain seemed to point the finger at backroom staff for letting australia amass a match-winning first-innings score in the second Test. He said in a newspaper column: ‘I bowled too short in the first innings at adelaide. We should have bowled a touch fuller. That was an oversight from the players on the field, but also from the coaches who could have had an input, too, which was frustrating.’
Former new Zealand fast bowler Shane Bond was England’s bowling consultant for the first two Tests and was given credit for some imaginative plans in the first Test at Brisbane, but England’s record wicket-taker was not so enamoured with the advice in adelaide.
Root backed England’s coaches here ahead of the final ashes Test at the WaCa when he said: ‘The relationship between the players and coaches has been really good. We got it wrong in the field. It’s easy to go back and say: “Try to bowl that little bit fuller”. We all knew that was the case and it’s slightly harsh to put the blame on the coaches.
‘Ultimately, the guys on the field are responsible for what we are doing out there. We have to be smarter, react quicker. I take the responsibility for that as well, as captain. We have to pick these things up quickly and adapt.’
Former England batsman Paul Collingwood, somewhat bizarrely, has now assumed responsibility for the bowlers for the rest of the ashes until new full-time bowling coach Chris Silverwood begins in the new year.
It completes a difficult week for anderson after he had a beer poured over him by Ben duckett in a bar during England’s latest late night out. More pertinently, questions were asked as to what the 35-year-old vice-captain was doing there in the first place.
England last night named an unchanged team for a match they must win, but confirmed Bairstow would bat at six at the WaCa and Moeen ali at seven. That was the order England were expected to field at Brisbane in the first Test, until Root had a late change of mind.
geoff Boycott, meanwhile, has urged alastair Cook to beware the example of his friend and Manchester United legend Bobby Charlton and not rush a decision on his international retirement.
Cook has admitted he may not play on for England beyond this ashes, particularly if he is unable to arrest what appears to be a decline in his powers.
But Boycott told the former England captain not to make any snap decisions.
‘There will come a time, if he continues having a bad trot, when alastair will say: “do I need this?”’ said Boycott to promote BT’s coverage of the ashes. ‘Bobby Charlton once told me that when things were not going well for him, he decided to announce his retirement at the end of a season.
‘He then went on holiday, slept in his own bed and started to look forward to the new season and training. Bobby said to me: “I made a mistake. I made a decision when I was tired, when the team hadn’t done so well. I could have done one more year, but it was too late”.
‘So, if it crosses alastair’s mind if he has a bad series and he starts to think: “do I really need this?” I’d tell him not to rush. go home, see your wife, sleep in your own bed, go and count the sheep you have. anything. Just go on holiday and enjoy yourself and, after a month, ask yourself again if you have the desire to bat.
‘If not, say: “Thanks very much”, and go and do something else.’