'THE WHOLE COUNTRY IS AGAINST YOU... EVEN AT BORDER CONTROL'

Geraint Jones sums up what England can expect on their winter tour of Australia

Former Ashes winner Geraint Jones has told England to expect every Australian, from borderforce to boundary rider, to be gunning for them this winter.

Jones, who was part of both the victorious 2005 squad and the whitewashed 2006-07 team, knows just what it’s like to spend several months in the glare of the Aussie cricketing public.

And he has a few words of advice for the men who will represent the Three Lions Down Under over the coming weeks.

The pressure, he says, will have started from the moment the tourists’ plane touched down in Perth last month.

“You get the feeling the whole country is against you,” Jones told Betway Insider.

“You know it from the minute you get there. If you get a cricket fan at passport control, then there’s a good chance you’ll have a comment made to you.”

Players, fans and media combine to create an uncomfortable atmosphere for the visiting squad.

^{Stuart Broad came under fire from fans and media on the last Ashes tour}

“You have to find ways to switch off,” says Jones.

“I made a real effort to not get in the routine of room service. When there's 20-odd of you including support staff, there's always going to be somebody you can go out for a meal with.

“It's a bit harder in Australia with an Ashes series on because there's so much publicity around it. You get a bit more attention walking down the street than you do on other tours.

“But a lot of it is good-natured and you've just got to see it for the passion that it is and enjoy it as much as anything.”

The wicketkeeper urged his countrymen not to be riled by any taunts from the crowds in some of the massive arenas in which the Ashes will be staged this winter.

“There's no point trying to go up against 10,000 people in the crowd near,” he said.

^{Geraint Jones does his best to relax during a fishing trip on the 2006-07 Ashes tour}

“Your best option is to show that you've got a personality and that you're out there enjoying it, playing a game you love.

“If you go the other way, it will just make it worse.”

And on the field, it won’t exactly be peaceful either.

Some of the most famous sledges in cricket have been born from Ashes series - from Shane Warne calling Ian Bell “the Sherminator” and telling Paul Collingwood his MBE award was “embarrassing”, to Jimmy Ormond’s classic comeback on Mark Waugh, to Ian Healy’s comments about Nasser Hussain’s nose - and Jones has said England can expect plenty more over the next two months.

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“Playing in Australia, you know that you are going to hear them pretty much every ball, and pretty loudly. When you're on strike, it's your turn to get it,” he said.

“The chat you get in the middle of an international is never particularly personal.

“It was more to put you off your train of thought and get you thinking 'I need some runs. They're probably right, I need a good score here’, and then, before you know it, you've chased a ball that you would have left if you were feeling a bit more relaxed.

“But I just laughed at it because that was my nature and my way of dealing with it. I tried to use it to focus me and think: ‘I'm going to stick two fingers up to these guys and show everybody that I do deserve my spot’.”

But the worst of the lot? According to Jones, it’s the media… and the treatment afforded to Stuart Broad on England’s last trip Down Under gives ample evidence in support of the claim.

^{Jimmy Anderson is collared for autographs after landing in Perth last month}

Broad was deliberately not mentioned by name by the Brisbane Courier Mail, after he refused to walk having slapped the ball straight to slip during the corresponding series back home earlier that year.

Instead, the newspaper referred to him as a “27-year-old English medium-pace bowler”, while slapping the tag “team of nobodies” on the touring party in general.

“The more turmoil that happens, the more they have to talk about,” said Jones of his own experiences.

“In an Ashes series especially, you still want to chill out and read the paper and watch TV. As much as you try and ignore it, it's virtually impossible to not be aware if you are the individual being targeted.”

England, already troubled by injuries and controversies in the build-up to this winter’s campaign, would do well to take note.

SAM MORSHEAD