Justin Langer Slathers England Team with Unkind Words

Sreelata YellamrazuAug 9 2009

A dossier turned up on the table of a news desk that has former Australian batsman, Justin Langer, giving his fellow Australians an unflattering insight into the England team. The excerpts:

strauss in thought

langer with ashes trophy

England cricketers are 'lazy'', ''shallow'',''flat'', and ''love being comfortable''.

Andrew Strauss, the England captain, is "conservative" and James Anderson can be "a little pussy" when he does not have things going his way - "His body language could be detrimental to them [England] if we get on top of him early".

Matt Prior has a "a massive ego'',I would chip away at him about his wicketkeeping. I would be reminding him about how it could see him out of the team. I would definitely work his ego.

Ravi Bopara ''is sure to wind the boys up by his strutting around, but I would leave him alone.''

''English players rarely believe in themselves. Many of them stare a lot and chat a lot but this is very shallow. They will retreat very quickly. Aggressive batting, running and body language will soon have them staring at their bootlaces rather than in the eyes of their opponent - it is just how they are built.''

''Because of the way they are programmed they will be up when things are going well, but they will taper off very quickly if you wear them down. Because they play so much cricket, as soon as it gets a bit hard you just have to watch their body language and see how flat and lazy they get. This is also a time when most of them make all sorts of excuses and start looking around to point the finger at everyone else - it is a classic English trait, from my experience.''

"They like being friendly and 'matey' because it makes them feel comfortable. In essence, this is maybe the key to the whole English psyche - they love being comfortable. Take them out of their comfort zone, and they don't like it for one second.''

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