Australia still the role model for Lloyd's men

THE Australians are attracting howls of protest for their losing start to the Ashes tour, with their former captain, Ian Chappell, swelling the chorus yesterday, but David Lloyd has no intention of joining them. England's coach has spent so much of the past year presenting Australia as a vision of excellence that this is no time to change tack.

Lloyd's most common dressing room mantra, culled from a national newspaper report, exhorts England to aspire to Australian standards. There will be hardly a player in the home dressing room at Edgbaston tomorrow who cannot recite the following as he takes to the field: "Sharply-honed, dedicated players, attacking bowling, superb fielding, orthodox batting with flair, a message that you must be tough and ruthless."

Lloyd said yesterday: "It is simply a matter of learning from the best side in the world. The country had a spring in its step after the Texacos, and we want to carry that forward, but it doesn't have any bearing on an Ashes series."

This was at some variance with Chappell, who condemned his country's selectors as the worst he could remember, and accused them of distracting the Australian squad by not having the "guts" to sack their out-of-form captain, Mark Taylor.

Even in the relationship between the crowd and the team, Lloyd is adamant that Australia provides the lesson. "It is important that we retain the sharpness and intensity to win people over, he said. "The crowds were very appreciative of our fielding in the one-dayers - that kind of rapport is quite Australian."

Lloyd endlessly preaches positive thinking. Had he been charged with building Noah's Ark he would have announced that he had always fancied a boating holiday. Yesterday, he was eager to debunk the theory that England have lost the initiative by leaving Ben Hollioake out of the Test squad after a one-day debut that lifted the nation's expedatioris.

According to Lloyd, we should acclaim the selectors' imagination for picking Hollioake at all, and now be cheered by the reappearance of Devon Malcolm. "Never mind 19-year-old Hollioake," he said, "the country can get the same buzz about a 34-year-old Malcolm. He's bowling better than when he won his last Test cap 18 months ago. He's over the knee injury. He's fit and strong."

It is when Lloyd refers to English cricket being "one great team" that one wonders if he is losing touch with reality. Team-work has hardly been evident in their entreaties concerning the nature of the Edgbaston pitch.

Lloyd, captain Michael Atherton and all three selectors hanker for a reasonably grassy pitch of even bounce that will assist England's seamers; if that means the risk of a finish early on the fourth day, so be it. The release of Phil Tufnell from England's 13 yesterday (partly influenced by a dodgy weather forecast) suggests that they have not entirely given up hope.

But one of the last acts of the now defunct Test and County Cricket Board was to warn Edgbaston that any repeat of the mediocre Test pitches of the past two years would imperil their international status. The English Cricket Board, since coming into being, has seen no reason to withdraw that threat.

"Nobody wants to live with 12 months of that pressure," complained Warwickshire's groundsman, Steve Rouse, yesterday. "They've suggested that if I don't get it right, I'm on my bike. David Lloyd might want a lot more grass and as much pace as possible, but I can't afford the game to be over by Saturday night."

Australia displayed the first signs of cracking under the pressure of their disappointing Ashes tour yesterday by slapping a ban on sections of the media being allowed inside the inner cordon of their nets practice at Edgbaston.

Only television cameras were inside the wire fence surrounding the practice area.