Australians celebrate Ashes win while England train

The victorious Australians headed to a beachside brewery to celebrate their Ashes win while the knives were sharpened for England’s coach.

England batsman Ollie Pope heads to the nets at the MCG on Wednesday Picture: NCA NewsWire/ David Crosling

England, labelled the worst visiting side ever by Ricky Ponting, were back in the MCG nets for what would have been day four of the third Test match. The Australian players jumped on a bus to head for a lazy day at David Warner’s brewery pub.

The opener is an investor in the St Andrews Beach Brewery which is on a 92-acre Mornington Peninsula property about 90 minutes from the CBD.

The group and members of their family kept their distance from the public as they enjoyed a relaxing beer and celebrated Travis Head’s birthday.

The activities of the two teams a day after Australia secured the Ashes is indicative of the situation on tour.

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Around nine of the England players turned up for training in the nets at the forecourt of the stadium which had been shaking with excitement when local player Scott Boland took 6-7 from four incredible overs to secure the match on Tuesday.

Training was limited because there were only two members of staff allowed to give the batters throwdowns.

Three of the visitors support staff tested positive for Covid during the Boxing Day Test along with three of their family members. Discovery of that situation on the second day of the match saw play delayed for half an hour while the players were tested to see if they were also infected.

Fortunately all tests from the England and Australian playing camps have returned negative since the incident.

The two groups are flying by charter plane to Sydney on New Year’s Eve to reduce any chance of catching the virus.

Protocols tightened after Pat Cummins was ruled out of Adelaide when he was deemed a close contact following a brief encounter in a restaurant on the eve of the match. Since then the players have been encouraged to eat or drink outside in small groups.

The West Indies team had to leave Pakistan after the virus infected eight of the travelling party.

There was a maudlin mood around the England camp in the nets with the team proving uncompetitive in the first three games.

Former Australian captain Ricky Ponting was scathing about the team’s performance.

“I don‘t think I’ve seen a worse-performing team in Australia than what I’ve seen over the last three games,” Ponting told cricket.com.au.

The former captain singled out the batsmen for criticism and said the country needs to think about adjusting conditions in first class cricket as Australia did following the 2010-11 Ashes loss.

“Some of the English top-order batters that I‘ve seen in the last couple of tours, without giving names, there’s some techniques there that I just know are not going to stand up at Test level,” he said.

“In challenging conditions and world-class bowlers up against substandard techniques, then you get what happened today (Tuesday at the MCG).

“The little swing dibbly-dobblers that are getting them out over there (in county cricket), they‘re not facing that at Test level.

“They‘re facing guys who can actually bowl.

“What I‘ve seen with their batting, they’re just simply not good enough.”

There is disappointment in the England media over the side’s performance but the group is turning most of its attention to Chris Silverwood who insisted he was concentrating on the positives after the team went down in Melbourne.

Former England captains Michael Atherton and Nasser Hussain both believe Silverwood should be dismissed after the dismal tour concludes.

David Warner at the St Andrews Beach Brewery that he part owns on the Mornington Peninsular Picture: David Caird

“I can’t see a situation where Silverwood will survive this tour. All the responsibility lies with him as that’s the way (England cricket director Ashley) Giles has set things up,” Atherton said.

Hussain added: “When England went down the rotation policy at the start of the year, Athers said ‘let’s judge Silverwood by results at the end of year’. Well, England have lost nine Test matches, their worst-ever year.

“Those results speak for themselves so I think he is incredibly vulnerable.”

Many blame the inclusion of another white ball tournament – The Hundred – in the middle of the English summer for the fall away in Test skills.

BBC cricket correspondent Jonathan Agnew, a former England Test bowler believes England’s domestic structure was not “fit for purpose”.

“The (first-class) County Championship has been marginalised to the fringes of the season for the convenience of playing more limited-overs cricket,” he wrote.

“The ability to produce a solid defence has given way to the desire to hit ramps, scoops and towering sixes.

“The message from the authorities is the shortest formats are the only interesting or exciting versions of cricket.”