{"id":214030,"date":"2025-10-15T01:13:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-15T01:13:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/214030\/"},"modified":"2025-10-15T01:13:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-15T01:13:10","slug":"cricket-legend-ian-botham-slams-englands-arrogance-down-under","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/214030\/","title":{"rendered":"Cricket legend Ian Botham slams England’s ‘arrogance’ Down Under"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cricket legend Ian Botham has expressed deep concern over England’s preparations for the upcoming Ashes series in Australia.<\/p>\n

While the English team is talking up its chances of a first series win in Australia since 2010\/11, and Stuart Broad has labelled the home team “the worst” since that contest 15 years ago<\/a>, Botham has adopted a very different tone.<\/p>\n

In years gone by, touring English sides would play a series of Ashes warm-up games against local state teams.<\/p>\n

But in 2025, the Poms are taking on New Zealand in six limited-overs matches before a single three-day game against an England Lions team in Perth.<\/p>\n

MORE:\u00a0England great Joe Root preparing himself for Aussie Ashes ‘abuse’<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to wander in and have a little game with the \u2018A\u2019 team,\u201d Botham told the\u00a0Old Boys, New Balls<\/a>\u00a0podcast.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot one (state match), which borders on arrogance.<\/p>\n

“You\u2019ve got to give yourself the chance. They are saying we play too much cricket. I don\u2019t think you play enough.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe conditions are different when you play cricket in Australia \u2014 the sun, the heat, the bounce, the crowd, the Aussie players \u2014 you\u2019ve got to get used to all that.<\/p>\n

“You\u2019re not playing against the Australian cricket team, you\u2019re playing against Australia, 24.5 million people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both teams will rely heavily on pace in their respective attacks, with Aussie skipper Pat Cummins (back) under a major fitness cloud for the first Test in Perth starting on November 21.<\/p>\n

England also has a number of injury-prone quicks and Botham is concerned they won’t have enough overs under their belts ahead of the gruelling five-match Aussie series.<\/p>\n

\u201cBowlers don\u2019t get fit in gyms, that\u2019s been proven,\u201d Botham said.<\/p>\n

\u201cLook at the record with injuries – (Mark) Wood, (Jofra) Archer, Ben Stokes, Brydon Carse – they don\u2019t play enough. You get fit by playing.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf it goes horribly wrong, Mark Wood breaks down in the first game, or Jofra Archer does, or Ben can\u2019t bowl, we are suddenly chasing the eight-ball before we\u2019ve started. It\u2019s a worry.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cricket legend Ian Botham has expressed deep concern over England’s preparations for the upcoming Ashes series in Australia.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":214031,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[64,63,740,85],"class_list":["post-214030","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cricket","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214030","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=214030"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214030\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/214031"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=214030"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=214030"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=214030"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}