Chronicle EditorLONDON. — With the rain falling steadily onto the Trent Bridge pitch, the cloudless skies and searing temperatures of Brisbane seem a world away. Yet as Stuart Broad stresses the importance of a strong and uncompromising start to England’s Ashes cricket title defence, an otherwise calm, laid-back demeanour is, for the briefest of moments, replaced by an altogether steelier tone and in his head he is already there, knees pumping, as he charges in to bowl in front of a baying Gabba crowd.
“Forget about Perth, forget about Melbourne, if we get off and running in Brisbane at the Gabba, that will set up our tour,” he told Sky Sports.
Broad – or the “27-year-old medium-pace bowler” as the Brisbane Courier insisted on calling him during the 2013-14 Ashes – knows better than most, though, that there is far more to an Ashes tour than what happens on the pitch. He arrived in Australia four years ago as public enemy No. 1 following his failure to walk during the Trent Bridge Test that summer and with the Australian press only too happy to stoke things up, Broad bore the brunt as the home fans engaged in the usual verbal sparring with the England fielders – a rather one-side contest in most instances.
While the Aussies routed England on the field, Mitchell Johnson leading the charge as the hosts stormed to a 5-0 whitewash, Broad had an unlikely ally in helping him to hold his own when dealing with the Australian fans.
“The abuse you get from crowds is never personal abuse. I think as a player you have to smile and take that as relatively tongue-in-cheek. — Sky Sports
Online Reporter