Tour of Australia 2006-07                     Captain : Andrew Flintoff           

England’s ninety-second Test tour

(November 2006 -

      February 2007)

39th Test-playing tour of Australia by England

   (previous tour 2002-03)

The tour was a chapter of misjudgements and poor application. The team was ill-prepared for a hard Test series by returning home for rest after the ICC tournament in India instead of practising in Australian conditions. The first Test in Brisbane began with a huge wide from Harmison, not important for giving away a run, but significant for deflating the team’s intended  purposeful start

In the second Test England batted extremely well first innings with Collingwood and Pietersen posting a huge partnership. Then Australia lost three quick wickets but Ponting was dropped and they recovered before Warne’s astonishing bowling performance amid England’s cautious approach to the second innings cost them the match

Andrew Flintoff found the burdens of leadership too heavy, undermined by Michael Vaughan hovering in the background and itching to play. Time showed that Andrew Strauss should have been in charge; but other some questionable decisions by the coach, playing Harmison and Giles while holding back Panesar

Gilchrist hit the second-fastest Test century of all time in the third Test and Australia had won the Ashes as quickly as had been done on Hussain’s tour in 2002-03. The home side steam-rollered a demoralised team in the last two matches, and whitewashed England by 5-0. Two giants of the game - Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne - could retire at the end of the series with the 2005 Ashes defeat truly avenged.

In the following limited-overs series, England sneaked into the Commonwealth Bank finals and to everyone’s surprise Australia lost their first tri-series ODI tournament for 14 years.

Other England tours

Previous Test tour

India 2005-06

Next Test tour

Sri Lanka 2007-08

Next tour of Australia

2010-11

Members of the Test tour party (16  +  2)

Opening batsmen:  Andrew Strauss, Alastair Cook, Marcus Trescothick

Middle-order batsmen Kevin Pietersen, Ian Bell, Paul Collingwood,

Wicket-keepers: Geraint Jones, Chris Read

All-rounder:  Andrew Flintoff

Slow bowlers: Ashley Giles, Monty Panesar

Fast bowlers: Steve Harmison, Matthew Hoggard, Sajid Mahmood, James Anderson, Liam Plunkett

On 20 September 2006 the ECB announced names of thirteen players awarded central contracts -  Ian Bell, Paul Collingwood, Alastair Cook, Ashley Giles, Andrew Flintoff, Steve Harmison, Matthew Hoggard, Simon Jones, Kevin Pietersen, Monty Panesar, Andrew Strauss, Marcus Trescothick, Michael Vaughan

County representation:

Dm - Durham (3)

Ex  -  Essex (1)

Ha - Hampshire (1)

Kt  -  Kent (1)

La - Lancashire (3)

Mx - Middlesex (1)

Nth - Northamptonshire (1)

Nt - Nottinghamshire (1)

Sm - Somerset (1)

Wk - Warwickshire (2)

Yo - Yorkshire (1)

Average age of  team at time of first Test match

(23 November 2006): 

        27 yrs  2 months.

ODI : member of the ODI squad for Commonwealth Bank series

Test Appearances made before the tour

Trescothick 76,  Flintoff 62,  Hoggard 58,  Giles 52,  Harmison 45,  Jones 31,  Strauss 31,  Bell 18,  Pietersen 18,  Collingwood 15,  Anderson 13,  Read 13,  Panesar 10,  Cook 9,  Plunkett 6,  Mahmood 5, 

* Tour Officials

Dr Peter Gregory, England’s chief medical officer since 2002, stepped down shortly before the Ashes series. Dean Conway was physiotherapist with the England team between 1998 and 2007; Nigel Stockill started his role as physiologist in 1999 (later entitled Sports Science Manager) but in 2007 decided to take a break from touring.

Selectors

David Graveney (chairman),   Duncan Fletcher (coach),   Geoff Miller.

Selection

Not considered:   Simon Jones (Gm  ⋄) for knee surgery,   Michael Vaughan (Yo   ⋄) knee operation.

Andrew Flintoff was appointed captain over Andrew Strauss on 12 September

Tour Party Announced  :  12 September 2006.

Ashley Giles needed to be tested for fitness after hip surgery. Flintoff  (ankle), Anderson (back), Plunkett (side), Trescothick (stress), Hoggard were also all coming back from injury and illness.

Not selected:   Robert Key, Stuart Broad, Owais Shah.

Time between selection and departure from England

   54 days

 (12 September - 4 November)

Travel

London  Q  Hong Kong Q  Sydney

England flew home from the I.C.C. Champions Trophy in India for ten days of rest and recovery before reassembling at London Airport for the Ashes tour.  Their plane took off from Heathrow at 9:30 pm on 4 November 2006

Flying via Hong Kong the team landed at Sydney Airport on Sunday morning, 5 November.

They then trained at the Aussie Stadium Fitness Centre in Sydney.

Time spent in Australia

    102 days

(5 October -  14 February)

On-tour selection panel

Duncan Fletcher (coach), Andrew Flintoff (captain), Matthew Maynard (batting coach), Kevin Shine (bowling coach).

Tour committee :  Duncan Fletcher (coach), Andrew Flintoff (captain), Andrew Strauss  (vice-captain),  Paul Collingwood,  Geraint Jones.

Reinforcements

Marcus Trescothick withdrew from the tour with a stress-related illness on 14 November and Ed Joyce was named next day to take his place.

Ashley Giles dropped out of the tour on 16 December after receiving news of his wife’s illness. He flew home, and James Dalrymple replaced him, being drafted in, like Joyce, from the England Cricket Academy in Perth.

Kevin Pietersen withdrew from the one day squad on 12 January after breaking a rib, and Ravi Bopara was given his place next day.

On 17 January Mal Loye reinforced the team.

James Anderson returned home early with a back problem on 2 February;  Chris Tremlett had a back strain and Jon Lewis had an achilles injury, so both returned home just before the ODI finals. Stuart Broad was called up as cover, coming from the MRF pace academy in Chennai for the finals.

Michael Vaughan tore his hamstring and was forced out of the one-day series, flying home on 10 February.

Fixtures/Results

Each side used 14 players in the second tour match v NSW

Match (f) v Cricket Australia’s Chairman’s XI at Perth was not an official tour fixture but an extra match to give players not included in the Test side a game

ϯ not first-class

§ one-day internationals (Commonwealth Bank series)

Å  Twenty20 international

Time spent in Australia before First Test:  

 18 days

(5 November - 23 November)

Test appearances on tour

5  -   Bell,  Collingwood,  Cook,  Flintoff,  Harmison,  Pietersen,  Strauss,

4  -   Hoggard, 

3  -   Anderson,  Jones,  Mahmood,  Panesar, 

2  -   Giles,  Read

1  - 

0  -   Dalrymple,  Joyce,  Plunkett,  Trescothick.

Match appearances

T  Test match

o  one-day international 

x other match 

⊕ T/20 international

 W won  L lost  D drawn

N no result   A abandoned

u unknown result

Each side used 14 players in the second tour match (b)  v NSW

In match (f) v Cricket Australia’s Chairman’s XI at Perth: Owais Shah, Robin Smith, Alec Stewart and Adam Hollioake also played.

Highlights

•  T

• 

•   Monty Panesar, restored to the team at Perth but two Tests too late, took 5 for 92 in Australia’s first innings.

•   Alastair Cook scored a hundred (116) in the third Test, adding 170 in partnership with Ian Bell (87)

•   Chris Read, coming in to the side at Melbourne, took six catches in the innings, then six more victims at Sydney.

•  

•   Paul Collingwood’s hundred (106) in the ODI at Brisbane allowed England to sneak into the CB finals. He then scored another in the first final (120*) and then 70 off 90 balls in the 2nd final to snatch the tournament.

Tour Summary

⋆  including the unofficial tour match against CA Chairman’s XI at Lilac Hill.

F  Fixtures   W  Won   L  Lost   D Drawn   T  Tied  Canc  Cancelled  Aban  abandoned

Return to England

Sydney  Q  London

Marcus Trescothick flew home from Sydney on 14 November and Ashley Giles on 16 December.

The Test-only players (Cook, Harmison, Hoggard, Jones, Read)flew home on 6 January.

Kevin Pietersen flew home on 12 January after breaking a rib; James Anderson on 2 February with a back problem ;   Chris Tremlett (back)  and Jon Lewis (achilles) on 7 February;  Michael Vaughan on 10 February.

The remainder of the one-day team departed on 14 February 2007.

Time away from England

  103 days  

(4 November - 15 February)

Finances

 -

Accounts of the tour

“All Out, The Ashes tour 2006-07”   by Gideon Haigh  (Black Inc, 2007)

“Ashes Frontline, the Ashes diaries”  by  Justin Langer and Steve Harmison (Green Umbrella Publishing, 2007)

“The Battle Renewed”  by David Frith  (A B C Books, 2007)

Postscript

Andrew Flintoff handed the captaincy back to Michael Vaughan for the World Cup but then lost the vice-captaincy in the pedalo incident in St Lucia

Bob Merriman, a director of Cricket Australia, said England were offered to play four four-day games before the first Test but instead opted for seven days of cricket in practice matches. The ECB disagreed with these facts.

Other Test tours in 2006-07

Acknowledgements

To general reading of The Times newspaper digital archive (Gale Group);  Jamaica Gleanor archive;  National Library of Australia Trove; Papers Past NZ.

From former British Newspaper Library, Colindale and online:  The Age, Melbourne Argus, Bangladesh Daily Star, Barbados Advocate, Canberra Times, Daily Telegraph, Dawn, Eastern Daily Press, The Hindu, The Independent (Dhaka), Indian Express, The Island (Lanka), Lahore Times, New Nation, New Zealand Auckland Herald, Sri Lanka Daily News, Stabroek News, Straits Times, Sydney Morning Herald, The Telegraph (Calcutta), Times of India , The Tribune Chandigarh, Trinidad Guardian, The West Australian.

cricketweb.net;  ESPN cricinfo;  cricket archive; www.cricketcountry; www.coverpoint

Magazines/periodicals including Australian Cricket, B & H West Indies Annual, The Cricketer International, Cricketer Quarterly, Indian Cricket, Indian Cricket Field Annual, Playfair Cricket Monthly, Shell Cricket Almanack of New Zealand, Wisden Cricket Monthly, Wisden Book of Test Cricket, Wisden’s Cricketers’ Almanack.

Men In White, A History of Australian Cricket (Harte), A History of Indian Cricket (Bose), A History of West Indies Cricket (Manley)

Biography and tour books (own collection and at the M.C.C. Library at Lord’s Ground)                     ALL CONTENTS OF THE TEST-CRICKET-TOURS.CO.UK WEBSITE  ARE COPYRIGHT