31 July

Discipline!

It is a simple concept inherent in every successful team, organisation and individual.

It is a concept that manifests itself in so many different ways and it is one of the crucial ingredients in the recipe for excellence.

As far as this team is concerned, discipline is the most important issue in the future of this Ashes series. Our team meeting tonight focused on this very theme.

In a nutshell, we believe that by remaining disciplined in everything we do, then we will not only retain the Ashes here in Nottingham, but also we will win this series by a comprehensive margin.

We know that the press has been kind to us, as have the sentiments from the English public, but we also know how easily things can turn around.

This postcard is probably repeating our attitude from before the second Test, where my feeling was one of quiet optimism while guarding cautiously from over-confidence.

Test cricket, in fact cricket at any level, is so unpredictable that nothing can ever be taken for granted.

Who would have predicted that only four days ago we would be bowled out by a county side for just 97 runs?

There are so many examples in the history of this wonderful game that anything can happen on any given day.

England has a very good bowling attack and our batsmen know that they have to work very hard to score their runs.

On the other hand, the England batting line-up has a number of players who have scored big centuries in the past and it will only take a couple of productive partnerships to have us fighting for a victory.

The Trent Bridge pitch is notoriously as ugly as a baby eagle in appearance, but from experience it plays a 100 times better than it looks.

With a generous cover of grass, an experienced eye suggests a pitch that will be advantageous to the seam bowlers, but the rock hard surface below generally means a batsman can lick his lips for a feast of runs.