No infighting or panic in Australian ranks – Tim Nielsen
Despite Australia’s less than encouraging form ahead of their Ashes series against England, which begins in less than two weeks, coach Tim Nielsen has said the team’s leadership group is not panicking.
The Aussies finally broke a seven-match losing streak across all formats of the game with their defeat of http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Sri-Lanka-c758 in the dead rubber, and their recent performances have done little to inspire confidence with home fans that Ricky Ponting’s side can send England home empty-handed in the battle for the Ashes urn.
Blogging on the Cricket Australia website, Nielsen has said: “The last week has been amazingly busy and I don't remember anything in my time as coach like the public and media scrutiny the team has seen this week.”
“It is certainly made all the more difficult when results aren't coming and everyone in Australia has an opinion to how to fix things up.
“Most important for us as a team is to ensure that we don't panic and keep our eye firmly on the targets we have set for this summer.”
Those targets are winning back the Ashes and defending their hold on the World Cup in early 2011 and while outside observers understandably scratch their heads when trying to figure out how http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Australia-c746 can manage it, Nielsen seems satisfied that, all things considered, preparations are proceeding to plan.
“We have stuck to what we think is the right preparation for players and haven't rushed players back from injury or had mass change to the team due to a couple of losses,” Nielsen wrote.
Indeed, the fact Australia didn’t have the services of the likes of wicketkeeper Brad Haddin (although Tim Paine was a pretty handy replacement) and Peter Siddle due to long-term injuries while they were losing to http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Watson-c96326 and Mitchell Johnson have been rested at various other stages perhaps provides at least some excuse for their poor run of results.
While there have been reports of infighting within the team amid the losing streak, Nielsen dismisses claims the team is imploding ahead of their series against the old enemy.
“As is often the case as soon as we lose a couple of games there is all sorts of talk about disharmony and infighting within the team,” he blogged.
“While it has been tough, the leadership inside the group shown by Ricky and [deputy captain] Michael [http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Clarke-c51120] has been calm and measured and at no stage was there any panic.
“We talked about how we could improve and then went about doing it... there was no panic or infighting I can promise you.”
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