Our cricket will talk - Cook

Alastair Cook plans to combat another hostile reception for his England team in the second Ashes test by taking the Australian crowd out of the equation. “You let your cricket do the talking,” Cook said yesterday, on the eve of the match at a new-look Adelaide Oval. “Last time we had the same hostile environment when we got here, but toward the end of the series we played some really good cricket and that hostility changed because everyone was very respectful of the way we played.” England is on a three-series roll in the Ashes, having won at home in 2009, in Australia in 2010-11 and finishing off a 3-0 win at home in August. The impatience of Australian fans for a victory was evident during the first test in Brisbane, with the level of temper directed toward the touring team even higher than the normal Ashes intensity. The 381-run thumping Cook’s team got from Australia in the series opener was accompanied by some angry exchanges between batsmen and fielders and “sledging” has been among the most frequently uttered words in the 10 days of Ashes discussion since. Regardless of where and when the term was derived, be it in Australia in 1960s or ‘70s or somewhere else, sledging - or the art of verbally intimidating an opponent - has long been a part of cricket. Australian cricket crowds tend to join in and get very chirpy during the Ashes, offering plenty of loud advice to the England players. “In that last game we didn’t do ourselves justice and they got on top and that’s what home supporters do when you get on top,” Cooke said. Players and officials were criticised for letting the banter go too far in Brisbane. Australia captain Michael Clarke was fined in the wake of the match, but only really because he used an expletive that was heard on the TV broadcast. Clarke said he accepted and paid the fine, and vowed his Australians would continue to play tough cricket within the rules. Cook was expecting plenty more chatter on and off the field, but added: “it’s important that both sides recognise that a couple of scenes in that last test weren’t great for the game of cricket.” Australia batsman David Warner admitted he went too far by using a post-play news conference to pounce on Jonathan Trott’s batting failures in Brisbane. Trott quit the tour after the match, returning to England with stress-related issues. England coach Andy Flower said Warner’s comments were not a catalyst for Trott’s departure, but was still critical of the way the Australian opener took the sledging off the pitch.