WAGS for Ashes Debate Rages Almost as Much as Melbourne Pitch

The revival of Australian cricket in the Ashes 2010 has caused a few more headaches than they had initially imagined going into the fourth Test of the Ashes at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

andrew strauss with wife ruth

There has been a fair bit of debate over the controversy of the pitch that will be used at the MCG for the crucial Boxing Day Test after Australia drew level with England at 1-1- after winning the third Test at the WACA in Perth.

The general surmise is that the Australians will opt for the grassier, pace friendly pitch in Melbourne after the revival in confidence of their bowling spearhead, Mitchell Johnson with Ryan Harris doing quite for himself. Having watched England cave in in the face of some hostile bowling, Australia are hoping to give it their best shot by preparing a pitch not dissimilar to the one at the WACA.

However, it appears England are aware of the possibility and are not shying away from repeating that the WACA was a one off and that they are quickly confident of bouncing back. The defeat in Perth has greatly dented their momentum after the heroics in Brisbane and the victory in Adelaide and now go into the Test feeling that the Ashes has been leveled in more ways than one. If they are to retain the Ashes urn, they are going to have to generate the momentum themselves once more.

But there are critics in both nations who feel that the presence of WAGS ( Wives and Girlfriends) could impede those efforts. The England team has been steadily joined by a stream of wives, girlfriends and families while the Australians will keep up their tradition of having their family over for Christmas.

However, those in cricket circles in Australia and in England believe that the presence of the women will distract the cricketers from their primary job with the focus shifting to the fairer sex and their problems. They would want to get Christmas festivities out of the way as quickly as possible so that the cricketers can get on with the game and hopefully without the presence of their significant others in the stadium ever.

There are been greatly differing points of view with Graeme Swann himself using his column to suggest that his wife was no distraction or responsible for England’s defeat and other cricketers have openly expressed enjoying the tour more, not being separated from family for far too long.

The pressing diktats for Australian cricketers from former cricketers sound akin to Fabio Capello’s call that England footballers be separated from their wives during the FIFA World Cup 2011, which ultimately did not seem to make an impact on the final result anyway. England have followed a strategy wherein Andy Flower himself suggested that the team were asked to refrain from having family over for the first two Tests and then, reunited as the Ashes wore down, hopefully that the basic tenets of discipline and team cohesion would have set in by then.