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Marcus Trescothick has defended England’s Ashes preparations after Ian Botham joined a chorus of criticism from former players over the decision to schedule just a single warm-up game, saying ex-professionals need to bear in mind that “times have dramatically changed in the way that cricket is done”.
England’s assistant coach also laughed off attempts from the Australian media to compare his use of mints to help the ball swing in the 2005 Ashes with their own players’ notorious Sandpapergate controversy.
England play the Lions on Thursday, their only game before the first Ashes Test starts next Friday. On Tuesday Botham, who has previously said that England’s schedule “borders on arrogance”, returned to the subject. “It’s not the way I would prepare. Historically you have to acclimatise when you come down here,” he said. “You’ve got to remember there’s 24.5m people you’re playing against.”
Other notable voices to have spoken on the issue include Sir Geoffrey Boycott, who has called it “madness”, saying that “if they win in Australia it will be in spite of their lack of match practice, not because of it”; Michael Vaughan, who called it “a huge risk, a risky tactic”; and the former Australia opener Simon Katich, who said it was “asking for trouble” and that “very few teams have come to these shores and prepared the way England have, and had success”.
Trescothick said he “respects their opinions” but that alternative solutions are no longer feasible. “All I will say is times have dramatically changed in the way that cricket is done,” he said.
“What we are doing for this series isn’t anything different from when we went to New Zealand, Pakistan or anywhere else. It isn’t any different from when India come to England, or when Australia come to England.
“People are talking about it and I obviously respect their opinions, but with the volume of cricket that is now played around the world and the volume of white-ball into red-ball cricket, the opportunities are not there.
“The intensity of playing five Test matches, if we were to go and play two or three warm-up matches on top of that, having done it myself in the past, it is very, very tricky, when you get to the back end of a series, to still be as mentally fresh as you need to be. It is what it is. If you look at the situation around the world, everyone does the same nowadays. You turn up, play a game and into the series you go.”
Before the last Ashes series, in England in 2023, Australia’s only warm-up game was the World Test Championship final against India at the Oval, a schedule Allan Border described as “fraught with danger”; they won the WTC final and retained the Ashes, after the series was drawn 2-2. Before India started their series against England this summer they played the Lions twice, which was also how the England side prepared for their last away Ashes series, in 2021-22.
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“We’re very happy with the preparations,” Trescothick said. “We’re coming here with a team that have stuck together for a long period of time, it’s been very consistent. We’ve been playing good cricket in our Test stuff and it’s been pretty consistent for a number of years. So we’re pretty confident in our own team and what we have to throw at Australia.”
Trescothick refused to rise to the suggestion from one local journalist that the Barmy Army’s perennially harsh treatment of Steve Smith for his role in the Sandpapergate controversy was hypocritical given the admission in Trescothick’s 2008 autobiography that he had eaten mints during games in 2005 to make his saliva better at retaining the shine on balls. The story caused controversy at the time of the book’s publication, being interpreted by some as an admission of ball-tampering.
“I think those days have sort of changed,” Trescothick laughed. “Ashes cricket is great fun, isn’t it? Let’s keep it at that.”
