Australia / Frank Gregan / 23 August 2010 /

Frank Gregan gives us his take on Ricky Ponting's comments that another 5-0 whitewash isn't to be discounted and tells us why in his mind this Ashes series could go to the wire.

Everybody knows that the Australians love a bit of banter. Their favourite pastime is Pom-baiting during which they're happy to do more winding up than an apprentice in a clock factory! There are of course exceptions to the rule and one of those is their skipper Ricky Ponting, who is normally the voice of reason. Ponting is a great role model, magnanimous in victory, gracious in defeat and always respectful of his opponents.

That was until last week when the headline 'Ponting predicts a 5-0 Ashes win' was all over the media. That's very unlike Ricky Ponting and having delved behind the headline and looked at the context of the quote it's clear that Ponting wasn't exactly having a Muhammad Ali type 'in your face' moment, although he was not his usual level-headed self.

Ponting was asked if a repeat of the 5-0 whitewash of 2006/7 was possible and his answer was "it's absolutely possible, there's no reason why not, it's all in our hands." That's not exactly a Glen McGrath 'we're going whip your butt 5-0' style prediction but it was still enough to start the mind games between the two camps.

The Aussie skipper is a veteran of a zillion press conferences and could easily have swerved the question with one of his diplomatic default answers, something along the lines of "to be honest we're not thinking about the scoreline, our priority is to regain the Ashes and that's all we'll be focussed on."

England's response came from Andrew Strauss who was dismissive of Ponting's Mystic Meg impersonation; "To a certain extent it's silly season starting with all sorts of predictions and people coming out with all sorts of things." With the skipper refusing to rise to the bait it was left to Warwickshire and England's Jonathan Trott to have a pop back. Trott, who scored a century on debut against the Aussies in the series decider last year said "I've only played one game against them (Australia) and they wanted to win that game but it turned out pretty good for us!"

We all had a good old mock on this side of the globe when McGrath made his 5-0 claim last time around but who ended up having the last laugh? One thing that is different for this series is the general acceptance that both teams are very evenly matched. The emphasis during the build up will no longer be about the gulf in class between the two sides because there no longer is one. All the talk this time around is focussed on England's ability to adapt to the conditions and the Kookaburra ball.

England are strong at home, their bowlers have been brought up in the conditions and know how to exploit them to their advantage. The ECB has never been slow to use international players who meet the qualifying criteria in order to strengthen the squad but a look at the bias between those who bat and those that bowl shows a stark contrast. English bowlers as a rule grow up on English wickets, English batsmen can grow up anywhere.

Most critics agree that the reason that England have not won on Australian soil since the days when Mike Gatting was skipper has been their failure to bowl well Down Under. It's been 23 long years but this might just be the series that breaks the sequence if the English bowlers can face up to the dilemma and conjure up a way to take 20 wickets in a match.

In a year in which the world has taken betting tips from an octopus called Paul it's not surprising that a few Betfairians have chosen to follow Ponting's advice and back 5-0 to the home side at around [30]. 5-0 to the English has been attained at [34.0] by a backer whose optimism knows no bounds! Both 5-0 score lines are big prices for a reason - the series is likely to be as close as the Aussie General election!

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