Someone up there asked what happened to England to become world beaters. Duncan Fletcher started it actually, he and his selectors sat down and identified people with the temperament to play test cricket. The reasoning is that at that level, they can all play. Even if they don’t have every shot, they can work out a method, which areas to play in and which to defend, but they needed players who were mentally tough enough to go toe to toe with the McGrath’s and Warnes of the cricketing world and not back down. That’s why players like collingwood had a long career, he had half the ‘ability’ of ramprakash but he was properly ballsy about what he had. At that level, of course it’s 95+% capability, you can’t bluff completely. But that other 5% – that what Australia seem to lack more than anything; they know they’re not as good a team and don’t have the nuts to face up to it.
