While Justin Langer has Enraged English Cricket supporters with his frank views on Andrew Strauss' team, he finds one supporter in Michael Vaughan
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Always a committed team man, former Australian Test opening batsman Justin Langer has come to the aid of his mates with his penetrative understanding of human nature.
His perceptive pre-tour dossier, written on the basis of his experience of playing with the current English players in county cricket, has shed light on the mental and emotional attributes of the England players, have played an important part in their strategies against their traditional enemies.
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Former England skipper Michael Vaughan |
In his secret document, Langer, known for his mental toughness, combativeness and high threshold of physical pain, described bowler James Anderson as a "bit of a pussy" and claimed captain Andrew Strauss could be too "conservative".
In the dossier, Langer wrote that wicket-keeper Matt Prior had a "massive ego" and Ravi Bopara had an annoying strut which should be ignored.
His overall assessment of the England team that they would "rarely believe in themselves" was almost contemptuous.
"Many of them stare a lot and chat a lot, but this is very shallow," Langer wrote.
"They will retreat very quickly. Aggressive batting, running and body language will soon have them staring at their bootlaces rather than in the eyes of their opponent it is just how they are built.
"Because they play so much cricket, as soon as it gets a bit hard, you just have to watch their body language and see how flat and lazy they get.
"This is also a time when most of them make all sorts of excuses and start looking around to point the finger at everyone else it is a classic English trait."
Langer diagnosed that swing bowler Anderson could be battered into submission.
"He is hugely improved, but can be a bit of a pussy if he is worn down," Langer wrote.
"His body language could be detrimental to England if we get on top of him early." Langer wrote of Strauss, his former teammate at county team Middlesex. He said Strauss was timorous, often failing to go in for the kill.
'His weakness is possibly his conservative approach. He will tend to take the safer options in most cases," the dossier noted.
Langer, a member of the 2005 team that lost the Ashes to England in England, warned Australia not to repeat the mistakes of that series when they were too friendly with the opposition.
"They (the English cricketers) like being friendly and matey because it makes them feel comfortable.
"In essence this may be key to the whole English psyche they love being comfortable. Take them out of their comfort zone and they don't like it for one second."
Predictably, Langer's dossier has not gone down too well in England, but 2005 Ashes-winning captain Michael Vaughan said yesterday he agrees with Langer.
"If I had been asked to write a dossier on English cricket, I would have come up with many of the same points," Vaughan wrote in his newspaper column.
With inputs from media and agency reports
