Bring On Bumpers, Says Langer, As England Breaks Post-ashes Duck

The Age

Friday August 11, 2006

JOHN TOWNSEND

TEST opener Justin Langer expects a ferocious bumper barrage during this summer's Ashes series as the venomous England pace attack tests his recovery from a serious head injury.

Predicting he would receive more bouncers this summer than at any other stage of his career, Langer urged the England pacemen to let fly and said he would do likewise if he was in their boots.

"I hope they do (dig them in)," he said yesterday. "I would be staggered if I didn't cop more bumpers this summer than I have through my whole career.

"If I was an England bowler, I would be bowling short to me. But if I was an England bowler, look out."

Langer's bold challenge to England, only days after England completed a comprehensive series victory over Pakistan to finally shrug off its Ashes hangover, was echoed by his Test teammates Adam Gilchrist and Michael Hussey. Launching Western Australia's Festival of Cricket, a 10-day series of events surrounding the third Test at the WACA Ground in December, the trio said Australia was ready and eager to avenge its 2-1 Ashes loss last year.

And they were keen for England to field its strongest possible team to avoid any excuses if the Ashes returned to Australia this summer.

"We want to play them at full strength," Gilchrist said. "One, it would be embarrassing to lose to an under-strength team and, two, there is a chance that people could say that's why we won.

"There have been fears that it will be an Ashes dud because of their injuries and results since the Ashes, but that will all go out the window come ball one."

? Former Test spinner Greg Matthews has accused Queensland of gross negligence in its handling of Nathan Hauritz, the one-time international off spinner who has relocated to NSW in a desperate bid to save his first-class career.

Matthews, who has worked with Hauritz since his arrival in Sydney, said he pleaded with the 24-year-old right-armer to head south two seasons ago because of the Bulls' supposedly indifference to spin bowling. Hauritz has slipped from the nation's top-ranked finger spinner to a player unable to crack the Queensland side for all but one Pura Cup match last year.

"They absolutely blowtorched him," Matthews said. "There is no doubt he is still heavily scarred from his time in Queensland.

"When he arrived here, he was bowling off cutters more than off spin. I couldn't believe how much he had changed. You hate seeing a member of the brotherhood being burned like that. He still has an enormous amount of work to do, but he is eager to learn and he is now in the right place." -- With ALEX BROWN

© 2006 The Age

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