STRAUSS FLIES TO SICK WIFE
ANDREW STRAUSS has been forced to leave the Ashes tour after his wife was diagnosed with cancer. The ECB director left the England squad yesterday, just hours before the third Test in Perth, where an Australia victory would secure an unbeatable 3-0 series lead. “Andrew Strauss, director of England cricket, will not return to the Ashes this winter,” said an ECB spokesperson.
“His wife, Ruth, has been diagnosed with cancer and is going through a series of medical tests before Christmas. His family need Andrew’s full support at this time.”
Strauss, left, had spent much of this troubled Ashes tour answering questions about England players’ behaviour after a series of off-field incidents.
ALASTAIR COOK has been urged not to rush into any decision about his future at the end of this Ashes series in case he has cause to regret it forever like Sir Bobby Charlton.
Geoff Boycott is a long-standing friend of the football legend and has spoken many times with him about his decision to hang up his boots with Manchester United after an arduous season in 1973.
Boycott revealed on each occasion Charlton confided his regrets about not taking time to refresh his mind before leaping to a decision that haunted him for years. Before his 150th Test and with questions over Cook’s form and hunger, Boycott advised the former skipper, now 32, not to jump to conclusions this winter, however jaded he may feel.
“There will come a time when, if Alastair has a bad trot for a while, it will cross his mind, ‘Do I really need this?’” said Boycott.
“Bobby told me when he retired it was the end of a long season and things hadn’t gone so well. He announced it, then went on holiday, got back and thought, ‘I’m looking forward to the new season, and the training’.
“But he’d already announced his retirement, and he said to me, ‘You should never do that. I made a mistake. I made a judgment when I was tired. I could have done one more year and loved it – but it was too late’.”
Charlton made his decision to retire from Old Trafford in 1973 after United had finished 18th in the old First Division and, while he went on to have two unsuccessful years as player-coach at Preston and half a season in the League of Ireland with Waterford, it was the call to quit United that hurt.
Boycott said: “If it crosses Alastair’s mind if he has a poor series – and in five Tests, it will – I’d say, ‘Don’t make a decision at the end of this Test series’.
“Go home, see your wife, sleep in your bed, go and count the sheep you have – or whatever – and just enjoy yourself. Then after a month, six weeks, see whether you want to go to the nets again.
“Ask yourself then, ‘Do I really have that desire to go and bat?’ If you don’t, then say, ‘Thanks very much but this is getting too hard work’.”
Cook, England highest runscorer ever, has given no indication he is contemplating calling time on his Test career but several pundits have queried his appetite after an average start to this Ashes.
But Boycott is convinced the opener’s difficulties on this tour have been technical rather than motivational.
“Only Alastair can tell you what’s on his mind but, on the field, he is having a problem with getting forward to the ball coming across him,” he said. “Alastair will be examining in his own mind how he got out. Usually it’s when he doesn’t get out of the blockhole.”