IT WAS UNBELIEVABLE... IT FELT LIKE BEING IN THE COLISEUM

Stuar Broad recalls the disastrous Ashes our last winter as he promises that England's new, young team are ready to fight back

BY THE end of England’s winter of discontent Stuart Broad could hold his head up high. Despite being subjected to the kind of abuse rarely witnessed on a cricket field, the 26-year-old fast bowler rolled up his sleeves, took a deep breath and refused to lie down.

Booed on to the field in the first Test at Brisbane by a fired-up crowd aggrieved by a perceived injustice at his refusal to walk at Trent Bridge last summer, by the end of the series Broad had grudgingly earned their respect. He’d proved his warrior spirit. ‘The abuse felt very tongue in cheek to start with,’ he said. ‘I mean Australians having a go at me for not walking? Come on.

‘I knew I was going to get some stick so I did some little things like walking around the ground with the team psychologist in the warm-up games. You’d get the odd drunk Aussie shouting “Broad you’re a p****”, and I’d say “Thanks, mate”.

‘But in no way, shape or form did I think the boos would be as loud as they were in Brisbane. I thought I was prepared for it, but when it hit it was like “boom”. It was unbelievable. It felt like being in the Coliseum.

‘If you put anyone inside a 50,000-seat stadium with the whole crowd shouting “Kill” then they’re going to think, “This is lively”. There’s no doubt it ruffled me.’

Broad’s response was to take six Australian wickets with yet another fighting display which will be the epitaph of a player who has become the heartbeat of the England side.

‘It did me a huge favour to end up with six wickets in that innings,’ he said. ‘Because the Aussies obviously thought, “We’ve given it everything and he’s come out OK”. By Tests two and three it had really died down.

‘I’m 27 years old and I don’t think, in my cricket career, I’ll ever go through something as hard as that. To have a whole country on your back was quite incredible really.

‘We had awful results but, personally, I realised that as soon as the Aussies started coming up to me and saying, “We beat you but we respect you, mate”, it made me feel a lot better.’

As the Ashes were brutally ripped from England’s grasp, Broad finished the series with 21 wickets at 27, a badly inflamed knee and a ‘melancholy sadness’ as Andy Flower’s coaching reign ended and the recriminations began.

Speaking at his home ground of Trent Bridge, Broad is in optimistic mood. He is acutely aware of the pain England’s fans have been through as a result of this winter’s 5-0 thrashing but retains a firm belief in the side’s capacity to reinvent itself under new coach Peter Moores and under-fire captain Alastair Cook.

THE messy removal of Kevin Pietersen from the fray has still not been accepted by all England fans — or indeed Pietersen himself, while the side’s fall from grace has been spectacular, but the 67-cap veteran is ready for a new kind of fight; to regain the trust of England’s cricket-going public.

‘I know there’s still a temptation to look back and say this happened or that happened, but Kev’s gone, Swanny’s gone, [former captain] Strauss has gone,’ said Broad. ‘That’s the thing about sport; it moves on. Players come and go.

‘Kev was a fantastic player for England and his runs contributed to winning a lot of games. I hope no one forgets that. But the decision has been made, with a young side coming through, a new coach and a captain who wants to make it his team, that Kev is not the best for that particular environment. Look, Alex Ferguson sold Roy Keane to Celtic. These things happen in sport.

‘I remember when Andrew Flintoff retired, people said, “Where does English cricket go now?” Well, it actually improved. I don’t see why that can’t happen again.’

With 67 Tests under his belt, 238 wickets and more than 2,000 runs, Broad is approaching the peak of his career. He plays his first county game of the summer today knowing his knee will need to be managed carefully throughout his career. But his appetite, desire and willingness to go into battle for England burn as fiercely as they did when he made his international debut in 2007.

‘I’m at my best when I’m challenged,’ he said. ‘The passion is in my blood from my dad (former England Test player Chris). He played with his heart on his sleeve as a player and I wouldn’t change that for the world.

‘As a youngster I never understood that saying, “It’s not the winning, it’s the taking part”. My biggest motivation came from watching the likes of Martin Johnson and Stuart Pearce. My biggest fear would be for a fan watching on and thinking, “It doesn’t look like he’s trying — I could do that shirt more justice”.

‘I’m always desperate to be competitive. The day I lose that competitive instinct is the day I give up.

‘I got a real telling off from my girlfriend when I was in the park last Sunday. It was a roasting hot day and there were four five-year-olds playing cricket and I got chatting to their dads about Nottinghamshire’s T20 game the day before.

‘All of a sudden this little lad whacked as hard as he could and I just stuck my