Last month, australias vice captain, david warner, likened the forthcoming ashes series against england to war, whilst adding that he was looking for hatred to motivate himself and his team mates. Hyperbolic language, of course, but it gets under way in a few days from now. Our guest, graeme swann, knows all about pommie bashing. Of the 60 matches, 18 of his matches were against the aussies, eight of them in australia. When he says the ashes are all in the mind, does he believe england are prepared for the mental challenge coming their way . Welcome to extra time. First test at brisbanes the gabba. They dont call it the gabba for nothing. Whats its like being in boundary patrol in front of the hostile fines . I wouldnt know, i was always sensible enough to be in the slips so i wouldnt know it. But its true, the noise in there can be incredible. The whole stadium, its like a cake tin sort of thing. It enveloped the grounds and its all as one. Wasnt designed for the acoustic in a way . Maybe, but i remember going out to bad there in 2010. I was the ball after stuart broad had become Peter Siddles hat trick. The noise was the most ferocious. Can you pick out the insults . No. If you were on the boundary, you probably could . We always used to laugh about them, because theyre not particularly witty. The australian crowds, in fact, world crowds, havent got the self depreciating wit that an english crowd has. If youve been to a Football Game and hear some of more intelligent things that are said, not saying that everything said at a Football Game is intelligent, but its not in the same league. As englishmen, youre able to sit back and laugh at how much far ahead we are. Lets face it, if youve gone to a game of sportjust to shout abuse to the men in the middle, theres something missing in your life. Almost half of the 16 man england squad have never experienced an ashes test before. How are they likely to cope with this new experience . You never know, its sink or swim. One thing that i hope that england remember and that i hope the Psychology Team have been drumming in is that it really doesnt matter. Everything going on, all the noises and voices and press intrusion, it doesnt matter at all. At the end of the day, when you stand there and the ball comes down there, it doesnt affect the ball in any way. Easy to say that in the atmosphere of a studio. It is, but once youre playing international sport, these are the things you should be able to control and the best players in the world should be able to control that and shut off all the exterior noise because once youve found a mechanism to cope with it, its not that hard to do. Well talk about psychology in a moment, but thinking about captainjoe root. Hes only played in four tests in australia. He hasnt got much experience with which to inform the younger members of his squad, has he . Hes not. And i think every captain needs to use whatever his particular strengths are. Which would be what, forjoe . Forjoe, its his body language, the way he plays the game. Hes a naturally aggressive batsman when hes at the crease. If he goes out and bats like that, puffs his chest out, takes on the aussie bowlers, the australians dont like people taking them on. The reason they sledge as a nation, the nations psych is to belittle and they want you to be a rabbit in the headlights and be a shrinking violet. They hate people to stand up to them and take them on at their own game. Joe does that, not with words, but with his actions. You saw that in the way he batted in the last ashes in england, in the first test match in cardiff. He was dropped and then he played a brilliant counter attacking, aggressive innings and scored 100. And the whole team feeds off that. They watch him play. So, all right, ifjoes doing it, hes our leader, we will follow. Thats what he needs to do in australia. Its almost like youre describing right now the strategy to counter a bully. Its exactly that. It is easy to say. If youve been bullied as a child, you go home and your mum and dad will say, sticks and bones may break your bones. But if theres a bully in the playground, theres a real possibility that youll be physically hurt. You cant get physically hurt by a crowd shouting at you and your parentage, especially when most of them are unfounded. You need to found a mechanism to get through it. Every sportsman at some stage has had horrific things shouted at them from the crowd. I think were actually getting towards a stage where the tolerance levels of those around the people accusing the crowd is raised and theyre not going to put up with that any more. Sorry, its fallen. Theyre not going to put up with physical and mental abuse thrown towards someones family members. Im glad you mentioned that, because i was going to ask you where the line gets crossed . Theres a huge thing thats put up before every International Cricket game on the board, saying the icc will not tolerate any sort of abuse or aggression that discriminates because of skin colour, because of gender, sexual orientation. Basically, everything that you shouldnt, and rightly so. But of course. But every insult is one of those things. And its lip service. Its put up on the board, but its not adhered to. Its to tick a box, as we all know in this world, a lot of people do that. They cover their own backs. It would be interesting if they actually followed through because a couple of crowds, there were 300 people left in the park on the first day there are two things to counter that with. The threat of physical violence also is pretty borderline. There was a famous occasion where Michael Clarke, australian batsman, who was captain at the time, said to your mate, Jimmy Anderson, get ready for a broken, expletive, deleted, arm. If any australian is going to threaten you on the feel, little Michael Clarke, bless him. And evenjimmy didnt remember that. He doesnt stoop to threats like that. But it was only because it was picked up by the cameras, picked up by the stump line. And to be honest, the intrusion into the middle of the stump mics and cameras, Michael Clarke got a lot of criticism for that. Thats been happening for 35, even longer, even a book that i wrote about it, its been happening for 100 years. And as media, if youre then putting it out to the crowd but then blaming the players, its actually your responsibility. The director had the choice when he heard that to not put it out on air, but he chose to. Hes a producer and he has to be quick with the microphone, thats the point. Theres no need for the microphone fader if you ask me. Because things do get said. Stupid things, in jokes. Remember when england played india a few years ago and they were joking about cars, about porsches and someone in the media said that england players are trying to degrade their indian counterparts and being elitist, saying, we drive porsches. What they didnt realise is that all the indian players were multimillionaires and the english players were not. What the english players were doing was trying to get free product sent to them because somebody mentioned a champagne bottle was sent to them in the change room. And they said, i wouldnt mind getting a porsche or a lamborghini. Theres always two sides to a story. Youve given it and youve obviously taken it as well. In terms of your hip parade of sledging remarks, i suppose, the point is, theyve got to be funny . Well, the thing is with sledging, a huge thing is made of it. It happens so few and far between on the field, funny things. Theyre brilliant for afternoon speeches and all the ones ive got, i cant say any of them on the tv. I very rarely said anything as a spin bowler. If i swore at someone, i couldnt bowl the next one. I kept my mouth shut. But you do get a few things said to you. But none of them are funny. Some of the old stories are funny. But this is the media hyping things up. We live in a day of 24 7 news and something has to be interesting and you said at the top of the programme about david warner saying that he wants war and hatred. That is just a player whos buying into this pathetic hyperbole thats been built around the ashes, especially around the time of november 11, to come around with comments like that is just mind blowingly naive and stupid. I sincerely hope he regrets it all because its mind blowingly out of order. Its not war, its not hatred. If you hate someone because theyre from australia, or an australian hates someone because theyre from england, you really do have to have a strong look at yourself in the mirror. Anyway, it goes on to a lesser or greater degree, and in a sense, its all about preparing yourself, mentally, for that kind of atmosphere. Youve been fairly outspoken on how england set up, has failed to properly address this aspect of test cricket. You said i believe that english cricket has too long gone away from the strengthening, it wont make a difference if the players mind is not clear and positive. I think this is cricket on the whole. Once you get to the level of test cricket, that top level, that superlative level, technically, youre good enough to do that. Physically, youre Strong Enough to play it. 90 of test cricket is in your head and youve got to find ways of working out exactly coping mechanisms for so called pressure. Would you say england are behind the other nations in this . I dont know any nation whos ahead or behind. Mental illness, lets face it, until very recently, has had a real stigma attached to it. Someone was like the village idiot, stay away from him. But now, people are realising, its not your fault if youre mentally ill, how can we address that . And because of Mental Illness having a stigma, in this country, especially, and america is very different. You know, over there, they see shrinks, psychologists, not for bad things. They see them anyway for good things, for positive reasons. Thats what sport should do. I truly believe thats what cricket should do. Because if youve got someone good enough to get to that top level, then all i would say is technically, we have batting, bowling, fielding, massage therapists, doctors, bus drivers, security. I think there should be a team of psychologists, hypnotists. Do whatever you want, they will get out there and succeed. So youre speaking up here for the benefits of psychology. What about you . Have you undertaken it . And if so, how useful was it . I never thought i did. I mean, we had psychologists, mark boden. But i never found anything with him that worked especially well for me. I always found myself fairly blessed that i didnt need it, or so i thought. But others did . I used to go around the change room and see people visibly nervous before the days play and i tended to gravitate towards the people who werent nervous. So Alastair Cook and Jimmy Anderson were my closest in the dressing room because they didnt seem bothered at all. I liked that. It was good for the soul. Thats me, as well. It was only the first day i walked into the oval in london as a journalist for bbc, rather than a player, as i walked through the gate, the physical difference. I mean, it was like there was no weight on my shoulder. I breezed into the ground. And at that point, realised why id done well throughout my career because id convinced myself that it didnt matter, that i wasnt bothered. Of course it does, it did. Its a big deal, youre on tv. And nerves are natural and can sometimes propel you to a good performance . The people who use nerves to propel them to a good performance are the people who have got it cracked. Nerves or pressure, its the same thing. A feeling of uneasiness. Youre not settled, youre not in your comfort zone. But it can all be channelled in a positive way. I was quite lucky. I managed to do it by convincing myself that i couldnt give a monkeys. This is fine. A walk in the park. The sun will come up tomorrow. But i surrounded myself with people who inflated my tyres, who talked exactly the same way. My spin bowling coach, the greatest man ive ever met. Greatest coach. Never spoke technically. We never talked about spin bowling ever. All hed say is, wed stand there and say, mr swann, at the end of the day, if you dont get any wickets, who cares, youve got a beautiful wife and children and the sun will come up tomorrow, and hes absolutely right. Lets try to get a feel for the balance of power on the field, in terms of batting and bowling in the forthcoming series. Australia are the favourites, theyve been pretty much so from the start. Then a number of injuries, of course, both pre tour and during the tour to the england squad. And thats why the former australian captain saying, this tour is shaping up as a replica of the disastrous 2002 2003 campaign. It has all the hallmarks of a familiar english horror story. There you go. Thats the australian psych i was talking about earlier. Build it up, get the english players to to believe that. Theres no truth in that . Put it this way. If this Australian Team came to england now, england would be Firm Favourites because the ball will swing in england. The australian batsmen are very poor against the swinging ball, hence the last english ashes, the ball swung in three test matches. England trounced australia in those game. The two games where it didnt swing, where the conditions were similar to australia, australia won those two games. Hence, australia are favourites in australia because the ball wont swing. Their batsmen are clueless when the ball swings through the air. Theyre very good players when its up and down. Steve smith, especially. The best player in the world against a ball. Not even in the top 20 there. Theres a view and maybe you expressed it yourself. Smith and david warner really are all that theyve got to rely on, but then of course, england only have Alastair Cook and joe root. You could argue that the top fives are similar. Theyve got two world class players in both top fives. The captain and a left handed opener. 0bviously, cook and warner are different players but they bring the same sort of thing to a team experience, runs in the bank. Both teams have got three positions. They havent fully been nailed down. Fairly young, inexperienced players. Players who need a big ashes to prove themselves, to concrete themselves a place in the team. Where england are very much stronger than australia, in my view, is batting from 6, 7, 8, 99, with stokes, wokes, ali. Australia cant even match england in that department for runs, so that could be an area where england look to exploit australia. What about the absence of the england all rounder ben stokes who remains under investigation following an incident outside a bristol nightclub back in september . How much will he be missed . A great deal, to be honest. He is genuinely the best cricketer in the world at the moment, as it stands, with the bat and ball. You could argue individually he is the best batter and the best bowler. Hes the all round package, what he brings to the team. Australia try and beat you down, hyperbole, statements everywhere, peacocks sticking their tails out. They want you to. Ben stokes isnt phased by that at all. Without any of his playing, he would inspire others. Without him there, you would think theyre in a much weaker position. You describe for me are happy, productive dressing room. You describe for me a happy, productive dressing room. It is one that doesnt feel it can lose any situation. We had that in 2010 11. After the first day of the first test where peter siddle took a hat trick, we were bowled out for 230 on the first day. Australia batted well and got a big lead of 200. We then got 517 1, batting, when we should have been bowled out. More a case of what that did to australia as a whole. As a team, we were buoyed by it of course, they cant get us out. They are shattered out there. Gotta play again in a couple of days, they are clueless, out of ideas. Their captain is out of ideas about how to get above us when the crowd have deserted them and they have turned on their own bowlers. That permeates through a dressing room. Those feelings of, you know, they dont like their own players, theyre cheering for us now. I always liken it to the crowd in rocky iv who start screaming for ivan drago at the start and by the end of the film, its all rocky, rocky, rocky. Thats what you have to do with an australian crowd. Talking about a happy dressing room, maybe you can sense where this is going. Much of the breakdown what about Kevin Pietersens relationship with you and some of the team and its management back in 2012, thats been in the Public Domain for some time, water under the bridge, largely speaking, but the fact is you will be sharing media facilities in australia. Will i . I believe so. You are both working the tv. I dont know if he is. He is certainly going to be there. How is it going to go . We have never been friends, me and kev. We had a very good professional relationship when we played because he was a world class player to have in the team. And i always wanted him in the team. Especially when he was contrite and trying to to right some of the wrongs hed put forward with the strauss text affair. We dont play any more. I dont see the point in Holding Grudges moving forward. Kevs got his life to lead and ive got mine. You refer to him in your book via a compliment about australias matthew hayden. You say that hayden epitomised everything that kev was not. Off the field he was one of the nicest blokes going. Its a lovely little painful sentence isnt it. Its just taken a bit out of context. Theres a whole lot more than that. Sure, much of the context was praise for pietersen, in fairness, wasnt it . You know, the whole fallout, i wasnt a part of it. I had left by then. I cant honestly talk. The two things i have had, obviously very one sided opinions on that because ive heard everyone but the member of the team talk about the situation. Ive not heard kevins side of it. I might be completely wrong, kevin might be completely in the right and everybody else in the wrong. Question is how you create a productive dressing room. We have been a little bit down this path already. A management team, a captain, has to kind of blend, i suppose, all of the different types in the dressing room. Yeah, but its also your responsibility. You cant go in there and demand that your ego is catered for. Thats a huge area where things went wrong with kevin, he expected that by the end. It is your responsibility as well to mould yourself into the team. The team is more important than the individual. I cant remember which coach it was, he says, show me a genius, ill teach him how to play with the team and then the team can learn how to play with him. Its the perfect sentiment. No matter how good you are, who you are, you learn to play with that team first and then you allow your brilliance to shape the team after that, not the other way around. As were learning here today, you are somebody who likes to speak his mind and in fairness, you might rub some people up the wrong way. Why . Laughter. There was former coach Duncan Fletcher plus the former captain Nasser Hussain who you said would have used that last two bullets in his gun on you if hed had the chance. I said it very tongue in cheek. Of course. I see nasser all the time in the media. I dont blame him. When i was first on the england tour, i epitomised everything Duncan Fletcher hated, i wasnt very serious or sensible. From that point of view, we clashed fairly dramatically. My main problem was mentor was phil tufnell on that trip so i didnt really have a chance. I preferjust a certainjoir de vivre about touring that the cat appealed to me whereas the others didnt. You are a big fan of andrew strauss, anotherformer captain, and he once called you a baboon. What is that story . A buffoon. I beg your pardon. It was in devon and i was petulant. I stamped my feet and demanded a review. Petulant . I was very petulant when i bowled, incredibly. Did you need to be to be on form . No, you dont need to be petulant. It was my release when i bowled. If people miss fielded purposefully, i would always say it was a lack of professionalism if they were too busy looking at the crowd and they were in the wrong place to catch, i would scream and shout. Its very different. A lot of bowlers do it but a lot of batsmen cant take it, they are precious and need a cuddle. There was a lot of criticism from the media when you left the ashes tour in december 2013, once england had gone 3 0 down in the series and was therefore bound to lose. The allegation was that you were a quitter. Four years on, how do you see that . I put this in my book. If i could have stayed on that trip, i would have done anything to stay on that trip. I was injured. Ive never played again since because of my hand, i had nerve damage. The nerve damage is there for life. I couldnt feel the cricket ball. I wasnt fit to play and i was told in no uncertain terms, if youre not fit to play, you have to leave the tour immediately and thats what happens. It followed two operations, didnt it . Five. Five . Eventually. I mean, it didnt get reported on so much at the time. Far bigger things were happening behind the scenes. I get asked a lot whether i feel bitter towards andy flower for not fighting in my corner but at the time, undoubtedly i did. I thought he tried to persuade you to stay. Yeah, he did. But at the time, i couldnt bowl. He didnt say, stay on the tour. He was the one who told me that i had to go home. I had a lot going on behind the scenes with kevin that was occupying their minds. I dont blame them at all. 0k. Well, look, ijust wonder, you think about the ashes series and maybe this does sound a little bit complacent, but it is hard to imagine International Cricket without the ashes, isnt it . Are you concerned that while that may stay and be the centrepiece of International Cricket, and five days, do you sense that the rest might fall away . There is certainly movement at the moment. There is a lobby to try and get rid of five day cricket as we know it. They are focused on the doom and gloom. Some thing need to be done in some parts of the world because not enough people watch it. Not enough tv moneys coming in. If money is the sole reason for changing it, i disagree. It should be five day cricket. Some test matches finish inside four days. Yeah, but they wouldnt. If you had four day, the over rate wouldnt increase like Geoffrey Boycott wants it to. Look at county cricket, how many wickets have to be docked to get a result . The very fact there is an extra day at the end, mentally, means games finish within four days rather than the easy finish in an hours time. So we have to completely forget that idea. For me, four day cricket is first class cricket. Five day is special. You strive for it, you want to play that. I know it used to be six day but in my lifetime, i have known it has five day cricket. I absolutely adore five day cricket and i dont know many players i play against around the world who dont adore it. Just because the crowds arent huge around the world, if we rush towards making everything, you know, box it up, 20 over cricket, in 15 years time, we will lament it and miss this incredible game that weve let go to rack and ruin. People will try and get a resurrection but im going to be there if i do, cause im not going anywhere. That is a very strong statement in favour of five day cricket at test match level. Over 25 days, potentially, down under. Give me your final prediction. 2 1 to england. I dont know how, where or when. I just have a feeling that we are going to win and i am i am going for 2 1. Graeme swann, thank you very much forjoining us. Very nice to speak to you. Hello. Its safe to say there is a lot of weather to come in the week ahead. Low pressure after low pressure will be coming in from the atlantic. This is how we are starting the week. Still cold enough for a bit of snow into the scottish hills for monday morning. But milder air will be pushing in across much of the uk for a time this week, because it looks like this will be pushed away by colder air, again from the north, by the end of the week. But this is how we start off on monday some snow on the hills in northern scotland, so some slushy roads for higher level routes here. A lot of rain elsewhere in scotland to begin with, and a lot of cloud across the uk. Still chilly, then, in northern scotland. Well see the rain and the snow tending to fizzle out as we go through the morning in scotland, and some outbreaks of rain to begin with for Northern Ireland and northern england. Come further south, yes, theres plenty of cloud. There isnt a huge amount of rain. Damp and drizzly in places but what we will notice the most is how mild it is compared with recent mornings. Starting the day across much of wales, the midlands, south west england, the temperatures into double figures. So the milder air moving in, but its doing so with plenty of cloud. So were hard pressed to find much in the way of sunshine at all on monday. Just a few brighter breaks to the east of high ground. Outbreaks of rain fizzling out, but there will be patchy, mostly light rain still around into the afternoon in some spots. Double figure temperatures maybe even into southernmost parts of scotland, but elsewhere in scotland, still single figures for another day. So still a chilly feel, especially the further north you are. 0n through monday night and into tuesday morning, well take another spell of rain through northern england, through Northern Ireland, and into scotland. But any snow on the hills turning back to rain as we turn ten things milder here eventually, as we go on into tuesday. A very mild night elsewhere, but again with plenty of cloud. It looks pretty wet on tuesday, especially in northern scotland. Though to the east of it, before any of it gets in, given any brighter breaks, again temperatures very mild, and a few spots reaching into the mid teens for a while midweek in the uk, with stronger winds for a time. You can see low pressure systems are queueing up some wetter, windier weather for a time mid week, but we are expecting things to turn cold again by the end of the week. So the milderfeel may just be brief. Rain at times, and a bit of snow, especially on the hills in scotland. 0ften windy at times this week, as well, and a colder wind by the end of the week. This is the briefing. Im sally bundock. Our top stories talks to form a Coalition Government in germany collapse, throwing Angela Merkels future into doubt. 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