Image courtesy of: The Metro
Swann is ready to take on his role as England’s knight in shining armour
England spinner Graeme Swann has announced his intentions to silence Australia captain Michael Clarke throughout the ongoing Ashes series as he poses the biggest threat to England retaining the coveted urn.
Swann is well aware of Clarke’s accomplishments over the past year, especially his back-to-back double hundreds against South Africa last December, but he has vowed to limit the amount of damage Clarke inflicts during the Ashes.
“He was their form batsman in England in 2009, although he didn’t have such a good series in Australia,” Swann told ESPNcricinfo. “The year he’s had has been phenomenal, so we’ll be hoping to cut the head off the serpent if you like, as a captain.
“The two Ashes series I’ve played, and one of the main reasons we’ve won, is because we’ve been able to make some of their best players have poor series. Clarke and Ponting last time, and Mike Hussey, until The Oval, in 2009.
“That’s what you need to do to win big series, make sure the match-winners in their team don’t have a chance to perform. We’ll have two or three players on their team we’ll definitely be looking at to keep especially quiet – although you hope everyone on the opposition has a poor series.”
Swann also took the opportunity to praise England captain Alastair Cook and the way he leads by example.
“The best thing he’s done is lead from the front by scoring runs,” Swann said. “There is no greater way for a team to get behind the captain than watch him pile on the runs.”
The English spinner has kept clear of all the recent controversy involving Australian players, but he did state that Cricket Australia’s decision to hire Darren Lehmann as the new head coach of the national team would work wonders for the baggy greens.
“We don’t know what their issues were and it’s not really for us to try and find out, although I’m sure we’d like to know, because everyone likes a gossip,” he said. “What I do know is that Darren Lehmann was a magnificent player, second to none, only Brian Lara has been a better player of those I’ve bowled against.
“They have a good man, he’s a good fella. Whether that brings the team together is probably for people to judge at the end of the summer. You could get rid of every clique and every problem in a team, but if you don’t win it doesn’t matter.”