Ian Botham tips 10-0 Ashes burial for Australia

ENGLAND great Ian Botham says rain may be the only thing stopping Australia being beaten 10-0 in back-to-back Ashes series this year.

Ian Botham

ENGLAND great Ian Botham says rain is probably the only thing stopping Australia being beaten 10-0 in back-to-back Ashes series this year.

As Australia flopped to a 48-run loss to England in the Champions Trophy yesterday morning, Botham said there was a yawning gap between the talent in the two teams.

"I could do a Glenn McGrath and predict a 5-0 whitewash for us - but I'm not daft enough to do that," Botham said.

"They're crap all right. It's just that in England there's every chance we'll get some rain. In fact," Botham adds, "given that we've got back-to-back Ashes series between now and January, if we get a good summer - and you rarely lose too many days to rain in Australia - make that 10-0. I'm serious. Why not? I think we're that much better."

Botham questioned the direction of the Australian team under coach Mickey Arthur.

"They don't look much like the hard-as-nails cricketers I used to know," he said. "This business of their coach setting them homework made me laugh out loud, almost as much as that previous coach banging on about Chinese warlords.

"Maybe they've been playing so badly because the players are confused by all this stuff. And if so, good. I'm just glad I played in the pre-bullshit era, when grown men were allowed, by and large, to go away on tour for months on end and be treated like grown men and not schoolboys.

"We didn't need to be told what we had to do to become better players and as long as we performed when it mattered we were left to prepare pretty much as we liked within reason.

"Homework? Do me a favour. I never did that when I was at school, never mind when I was playing cricket. And ice baths? What's that all about? Bowlers used to bowl all day, then wind down with half a dozen pints and a curry. And they stayed a damn sight fitter than the modern lot.

"I'm a bit like Shane Warne on coaches. You can learn a bit from them, sure, and the game is far more professional now than in my day. But I learnt more from sitting down over a post-match beer with Lillee and Marsh than I ever would have from a coach and it's a shame that kind of mixing with the opposition really doesn't happen any more."

Botham said England was more experienced, more talented and in better shape.

"Australia will be tougher than they look on paper, because they're born fighters, but not only are they struggling to keep a fast bowler on the field for more than one game at a time, losing (Ricky) Ponting and (Mike) Hussey has left a gaping hole in the batting," he said.

"They're relatively inexperienced, which is a big minus coming to a place like England, and when I hear things like, 'Phillip Hughes has a much better technique than when he was last here', I think, 'Well, that wouldn't be hard'.

"And if Michael Clarke continues to struggle with his back, then yes, 5-0 is definitely on the cards. It's not just his batting, either. He thinks a bit more out of the box than England's captain, which is probably Warnie's influence."

Some people, including the editor of Wisden, have voiced concerns that back-to-back series will remove some of the magic from the Ashes. Botham is a non-subscriber to the theory.

"If it's tight, people will be glued to it and it'll be the same if we're thrashing them. And in Australia it won't have anything to do with the number of games in a row but whether they're winning," he said.

THE SUNDAY TIMES