PERTH // Australia’s transformation over the last three months came about because the players simply got fed up with losing and decided to put in the hard work to turn their fortunes around, captain Michael Clarke said after they won the Ashes on Tuesday.
In March, Clarke was captain of an Australia team in crisis, with as many off-field problems as they had on it. The side was soon to lose their coach after a 4-0 series drubbing in India.
In August, after losing a third straight Ashes series to the English, he was in charge of a team that had played 10 Tests, lost seven, drawn two and won one in 2013.
On Tuesday, though, he celebrated winning back the tiny earthenware symbol of Ashes sporting rivalry with emphatic victories in the first three Tests of the series.
“I can only put it down to hard work,” he said. “The way the guys have trained and prepared, that’s not just batting in the nets or bowling in the nets. The guys are fitter, they’re stronger.
“Mentally, they’re certainly as well-prepared for opposition players as possible. Then the work they’re doing in the nets. It all adds up.
“If you don’t have success, if you’re not performing as you’d like as an individual player or as a team, you get to a place where you get sick of losing, or sick of not getting runs, or not taking wickets.
“You find a way to turn it around. And the only way to turn it around is through lots of hard work. Lots of dedication and lots of sacrifice and throughout this series.
“Individual players have put the team first on every occasion and that’s why we sit here as winners today.”
Although reluctant to single out individuals for credit, Clarke was prepared to pay tribute to the work done by a bowling unit spearheaded by Mitchell Johnson.
Pilloried by England’s Barmy Army fans for the last four years for his erratic bowling, Johnson returned from injury with a vengeance in the series and took 23 wickets at an average of 15.47.
“The other guys have played a big part to allow Mitch to bowl the way he’s bowled,” Clarke said.
“This game is a really good example. His pace probably wasn’t as high as the first two Test matches, but he executed with his skill and he’s got natural variation.
“That’s the class of Mitchell Johnson.”
Clarke’s reluctance to single out individuals meant he deflected questions about the influence of coach Darren Lehmann with wider remarks about all the staff.
Shane Watson, one of four Australians punished with a one-Test ban for not providing post-match analysis on the tour of India, showed no such reticence after bludgeoning a brilliant century to help set up the Waca victory.
“From the first week Darren Lehmann took over, it has been the most exciting time in my career to be involved in the Australian team,” he said.
“In everyone’s career, especially mine, to know the sort of ups and downs we’ve been through over the last few years ... we’re certainly having a lot of fun out there and playing the way we know we’re going to get the best out of ourselves.”
Cook not embarrassed by poor series
Alastair Cook, the England captain, said losing the Ashes was the low point of his 100-Test career, but claimed he was not embarrassed by the performance of his team, which surrendered the urn in three Tests.
Cook was a member of the team that won the Ashes in 2009, was England’s best batsman when they retained them in Australia in 2010/11 and captained the side to a dominant 3-0 home triumph earlier this year.
His team’s batting woes are reflected in his own displays in Australia, though, and emphatic defeats in Brisbane, Adelaide and at the Waca on Tuesday saw the urn return Down Under.
“The dressing room is hurting like hell,” he said. “It’s a tough place to be. We’ve had plenty of success and this is the other end of it. It’s not pleasant.
“In sport, if you turn up and aren’t good enough, you’re going to get found out. We haven’t been good enough, that’s the reason we lost.
“I’ll never be embarrassed for the way we go about things and the effort the lads put in. It’s a hard thing to say when you’ve been beaten and you deserve to get beaten. It’s never good as a sportsman to admit it, but we have.”
Cook, averaging 25.66 in the series, was happier to give credit to Australia and rejected suggestions the hosts triumphed because of greater effort and desire.
“I think it’s the first thing you do when you lose – people look at the hunger and the desire,” he said.
“I can honestly say in our dressing room, both are there. We just haven’t had the skills to match it.”
sports@thenational.ae
