Mickey Arthur believes Australia’s poor showing in the Ashes has been down to the team’s lack of a clear strategy going into the series.
Arthur was controversially sacked by Cricket Australia less than a month before the series following a disappointing run of results that culminated in his side failing to make it to the semi-finals of the ICC Champions trophy.
Darren Lehmann was the man brought in as his replacement but not even the jovial former all-rounder has been able to make a difference, with the side trailing 3-0 going into the ongoing final Test.
The team has looked stronger at the Oval but whatever the result (and the Australia cricket betting suggests a draw) they know they will begin the return series in November having lost the last three times they have played for the Ashes.
Should he still be in charged Arthur said his plan was to push England hard in their own back yard by trying a number of different tactics before going all out for the victory when the pair meet again in Oz.
Punters who bet on cricket will be interested to hear the South Africa’s theory behind Australia’s failure in 2013. He says it has been their lack of planning and thinks they must work on specific game plan if they are to reclaim the famous urn over the winter.
“We had to take the pain now to get reward at the end of the day. We had a goal that I’ll reveal (and it) was… we wanted to try and push England really hard in England, but we wanted to win in Australia,” Arthur told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
“This is what Michael [Clarke] and I wanted to do. We didn’t go into the series ever to lose it but we wanted to develop enough intelligence on all the England players.
“We were going to push them close and give the players and our team the confidence to see that England could get beaten and then go for them in Australia. That’s how we wanted to go about our escapade there.”