2010-11 Ashes Betting / Ed Hawkins / 06 January 2011 /

Australia's horror show continued at the SCG so Ed Hawkins takes issue with legend Shane Warne's 10-point plan for the Baggy Greens to rebuild

Shane Warne, with time on his hands after his plugfest, sorry chat show, was cancelled, said it was time to speak up. So he produced a 10-point plan to make Australia great again.

It would be fair to reckon that 10 points don't quite cover it. Eleven might be more like it, for the number of players they need to find. In this Ashes series Australia have been embarrassed by a super-fit, super-efficient England team. Andrew Strauss' side have been made to look like geniuses by dunces.

The theme continued on day four at the SCG as England moved to within three wickets of an historic series victory. Australia, soft and squishy thanks to the consistent thumping, crumpled like cardboard in a downpour.

So somewhere on Warne's list really should have been 'show some stomach for a fight'. Only in Perth did the Australia of old show up. And by that we mean the mongrel in them, the resilience, the bloody mindedness. As early as Brisbane it was apparent that this Australia team knew they would be beaten. They knew they were inferior.

And that is the problem with Warne's 10-point plan. If Warne had produced the list a year ago and Australia had followed them meticulously, they would still have lost. They just don't have the quality of players anymore. Spoilt by greats - or freaks - like Warne and McGrath, Australia cannot work out why they are no longer even competitive.

There is no mention on Warne's list of how to produce better players. He gets close by suggesting selecting players who ... wait for it ... 'have spirit and a sense of fun'. Have spirit yes, but fun? Abiltity Shane.

Nor is there room for 'make better selections'. Picking a balanced team would help Australia greatly. Had Australia not insisted on keeping faith with the naive and overrated Steve Smith, then things could have been closer. Smith offered nothing. Not runs. Not wickets.

It was a classic bits and pieces selection. Australia knew they needed either more runs or more wickets so they went for a guy who they thought might offer a bit of both, instead of a selection who would definitely give one or the other. They should have picked a proper batsman, especially at the MCG and SCG.

Warne's list falls farther short. 'Fewer support' staff and 'do the basics right'. This is contradictory. England have a relative army of support staff who drill, drill, drill the players to do the basics right so they become automatic. England, in fact, are a little robotic. They religiously stick to their plans.

The inconsistency continues. At No 6 we have 'Bowlers to stop thinking about going for runs and start thinking wickets'. I thought you wanted basics Shane? A pre-requisite of bowling at Test level is building pressure by thinking only about not giving away runs. Glenn McGrath was a great exactly because of that. Too often in this series Australia have tried to bowl wicket-taking balls.

If you believe that good players are born rather than manufactured, there is probably little Australia can do. But a start - and this should have been No 1 on the list - is this 'understand you don't have a God-given right to be the world's best. Accept your standing in the world game and work from there'.

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