MELBOURNE, Australia // If England think their two-day tour match in Alice Springs against a Chairman’s XI will be a quiet interlude from the red-hot Ashes series, Michael Beer says they are in for a surprise.
Two-Test spinner Beer will captain a team of callow youths and battlers grafting on the fringes of their states against England for the match starting on Friday.
Australia were accused of taking the sledging too far in their emphatic 381-run victory in the first Test at the Gabba in Brisbane.
Beer said his team would also try to land a few verbal blows if it helped soften up the English ahead of the second Test in Adelaide next week.
“Obviously if you’re playing against a cricket side and there’s any way you think to make them uncomfortable, you’ll do it,” Beer told reporters on Thursday.
“In Australia people say stuff. That’s the way we play cricket.
“It’s aggressive and that’s the way we go about it.”
Beer, who made his Test debut in a crushing loss to England in Sydney during the 2010-11 series, captained a Western Australia Chairman’s XI side against an England XI earlier this month in a three-day match that ended up a draw.
Beer said England pace bowler James Anderson, who was involved in a verbal altercation with Australia captain Michael Clarke at the Gabba, was “pretty good” at sledging, no matter the grade of cricket.
“I think Mike Hussey used the example, (Anderson) called him Dave for a couple of sessions to try to get Mike Hussey to bite,” said Beer, referring to the younger brother of former Australia Test batsman Mike Hussey.
“I don’t think it will be too hostile. There will a little bit of chat.
“My view is what goes on out there stays out there.”
The second Test starts in Adelaide on December 5.
