{"id":332597,"date":"2025-12-07T10:51:12","date_gmt":"2025-12-07T10:51:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/332597\/"},"modified":"2025-12-07T10:51:12","modified_gmt":"2025-12-07T10:51:12","slug":"england-to-seek-better-warmup-preparations-before-2029-30-ashes-series-ashes-2025-26","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/332597\/","title":{"rendered":"England to seek better warmup preparations before 2029-30 Ashes series | Ashes 2025-26"},"content":{"rendered":"

The England & Wales Cricket<\/a> Board is ready to offer Australia their pick of warm-up facilities before the next Ashes series in 2027, in an attempt to secure similar treatment when England return in 2029-30 and avoid being forced into the kind of buildup that preceded the current series and has become the focus of intense criticism.<\/p>\n

England\u2019s preparations are under the microscope given their dismal start to this series, with the first Test lost inside two days and the second lost in four, with Australia\u2019s winning margins eight wickets both times. \u201cIf I was an England supporter and had paid the money to come here, I\u2019d be asking the ECB for a refund,\u201d Ian Botham said on Sunday<\/a>. \u201cBecause this team, for me, is not prepared.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though much of the travelling squad was in Perth, venue of the first Ashes Test, by 2 November, 19 days before the commencement of hostilities, and the remainder had arrived by the 9th, their only cricket that could even be loosely defined as competitive before the series got under way was a two-day game against the Lions<\/a>, a collection of their own reserves and promising youngsters.<\/p>\n

Ollie Pope batting during England\u2019s only pre-Ashes warmup match, against the England Lions at Lilac Hill Park in Perth in November. Photograph: Richard Wainwright\/AAP<\/p>\n

That match was played at Lilac Hill, a public park on the outskirts of the city where the low, slow pitch was a complete contrast to the pace and bounce they were forced to deal with against Australia a few days later. \u201cEveryone is pretty aware conditions are very different \u2026 Perth Stadium isn\u2019t going to be like that,\u201d Ollie Pope admitted at the end of that match, in which England\u2019s No 3 scored 100 and 90 in his two innings; he has 105 runs in four during the Ashes campaign so far.<\/p>\n

But now the ECB and Cricket Australia<\/a> are discussing the possibility of entering into a memorandum of understanding to cover the teams\u2019 preparations for the next two Ashes series, guaranteeing each other high-class facilities, on similar surfaces and in similar weather to those they will face in Tests, and matches against high-quality opposition if desired.<\/p>\n

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When India visited Australia a year ago they were given sole access to the Waca, Western Australia\u2019s traditional home, on the opposite bank of the Swan River from Perth Stadium and prepared by the same ground staff. Cricket Australia might have been put off from repeating such generosity when India proceeded to win the opening game<\/a> of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy by 295 runs, though Australia then won three of the remaining four.<\/p>\n

While England have consistently defended their series preparations in public \u2013 \u201cPreparation is not the question for me at all,\u201d said Marcus Trescothick, the assistant coach, on Saturday. \u201cWe\u2019re very happy with the preparation that we\u2019ve used and what we\u2019ve had\u201d \u2013 their preference would have been to also use the Waca. But a Sheffield Shield game between Western Australia and Queensland was scheduled for precisely the period when they were playing their warmup, which meant the only Ashes combatants who benefited from honing their skills there before the start of the series were the Australians Marnus Labuschagne, Cameron Green, Michael Neser and Josh Inglis (though only the first two played in the series opener).<\/p>\n

Peter Siddle bowling for the Prime Minister\u2019s XI during the Canberra day\/night match against an England XI. He said the conditions would be \u2018totally different\u2019 to the ones in Brisbane. Photograph: Mark Metcalfe\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Instead they were initially offered the chance to play a warmup game on a club ground 1,500 miles away in Adelaide. When they requested to be moved to Perth they were informed that they would only have access to a ground of similar quality. They were then offered a two-day pink-ball warm-up for this week\u2019s day-night Test in Brisbane, but 600 miles away in Canberra where even the former Australia seamer Peter Siddell said the conditions would be \u201ctotally different\u201d and that \u201cthere\u2019s not going to be a lot they can get out of it\u201d. They sent the Lions, augmented by three members of the Ashes squad who had not played the opening game.<\/p>\n

Australia warmed up for the 2023 Ashes by playing the World Test Championship final against India at the Oval, and for that by training at the County Ground in Beckenham, south London, where the facilities were impressive enough for them to return before this year\u2019s WTC final. \u201cIt feels like this is becoming the norm for Test tours,\u201d said George Bailey, their chief selector, in 2023. \u201cIt feels like there\u2019s more tours that you don\u2019t have a tour match than when you do.\u201d<\/p>\n