‘I could have been a better captain’: Stokes admits errors as England seek Ashes reset
The sheer number of Australian voices triumphantly telling England to show some humility this past week has been slightly ironic.The first Test finished as an eight-wicket thumping, done inside 48 hours and worthy of criticism, but it was not without a genuine wobble from the hosts en route.Either way, Ben Stokes looked to do so when his players resumed training at Allan Border Field on Saturday morning before next week’s day-night second Test at the Gabba.Gone was the “shell-shocked” captain seen during the immediate aftermath of going 1-0 down and in his place, having reflected during the past few days, a far more conciliatory figure.Performances can only truly change perceptions of this England side, but there was an acceptance from Stokes that some of the blowback has been valid.
He also rowed back on calling former players such as Ian Botham, Michael Vaughan and Graham Gooch “has-beens” before the series, the trio among those to question whether their preparation were thorough enough.“I got the words I said there completely wrong,” said a sheepish Stokes.“Has-beens is a horrible word.It’s the only thing that managed to come out of my mouth at that moment.God, I’m going to be one of those one day.
But it’s not at all what I meant by that.”Talk of lessons being learned is a common refrain from defeated sides but Stokes – preferring one-on-one debriefs rather than all in one room – was happy to expand on a few.Among them was his own leadership in the field, admitting that his bowling plans during Travis Head’s whirlwind assault on the target of 205 runs slightly cracked under pressure.“I could have been a lot better as captain,” he said.“I am the person who makes decisions about how we go out there and operate and I am the one who gives the plans to the bowlers.
I wasn’t as clear as I normally am.The key thing for me is to be completely crystal clear with my bowlers.”A concern here is that Stokes and the head coach, Brendon McCullum, remain convinced that the target set was plenty, when the brief history of Tests at Perth Stadium shows that batting conditions improve after tea on day two.England’s collapse after lunch – the loss of four for 11 when effectively 105 for one – was where the contest was lost.This is a slightly brittle England batting lineup.
Devastating on their day, no question, but one that has been bowled out inside 40 overs an alarming seven times since the start of last year,Three of these occurred in India and Pakistan – an achilles heel against spin not exactly exclusive to the current generation – but Stokes conceded the statistic told a story overall,Sign up to The SpinSubscribe to our cricket newsletter for our writers' thoughts on the biggest stories and a review of the week’s actionafter newsletter promotion“We keep it very simple, which is always looking to put the opposition under pressure, but also understanding the moment we need to absorb it,We know we are very, very good at the first bit and there are areas that we can be better doing the second bit,“We do understand that.
We don’t shrug it off and think: ‘Next time hopefully it will happen.’ When we say: ‘We’re going to stick to what we’re doing,’ it doesn’t mean we don’t think about all of this kind of stuff.”There was also a nod to the England supporters – the thousands who have flown to Australia and those watching through the night at home – with Stokes acknowledging the frustration they have felt.“We know we’ve got an incredible fanbase who come out here and support us,” he said.“They want to see us win.
We want to win,We’re absolutely desperate,They’re absolutely desperate,We’re all on the same wavelength,”Not every charge was met with a guilty plea, however.
Plenty has been said about England’s attitude, with Mitchell Johnson among those to call England arrogant in the past week.The pair met on the field during the 2013-14 Ashes, a fiery encounter when Stokes first showed his appetite for the fight.Twelve years on, the all-rounder was again pushing back.“I think arrogant might be a little bit too far, but that’s OK,” said Stokes.“We take the rough with the smooth.
Call us whatever you want.I’d rather words like ‘rubbish’, but ‘arrogant’ … I’m not so sure about that.We didn’t have the Test match that we wanted to, but we were great in passages of that game.”Those passages chiefly refer to a fearsome first-innings outing with the ball that saw Australia shot down for 132 all out; encouragement looking ahead, even if Mark Wood will miss the second instalment.Australia’s players are far too savvy to be writing off the tourists just yet.
That said, the hosts have a distinct advantage given their far greater experience of day-night Test cricket and a record that reads 14 played, 13 won.To that end, Stokes understood why England’s decision to shoulder arms to the tour match in Canberra this weekend, save for sending three unused players, looks strange from the outside.But the sticky humidity of Brisbane and a Gabba surface likely to bounce far more than Manuka Oval support the thinking.As was the case in Perth – a fast-forward match that swung more wildly than has been acknowledged in some quarters – that call will be framed by the result.
Brain damage, blindness and death: the global trail of trauma left by methanol-laced alcohol
For Bethany Clarke, poison tasted like nothing. There was no bitter aftertaste, no astringent sting at the back of the tongue. If anything, she thought in passing, the free shots she and her friends were drinking at a hostel bar in Laos had probably been watered down – she wasn’t detecting a strong vodka flavour through the veil of Sprite she had mixed it with.All in all, Clarke remembers drinking about five of those shots, sitting with her best friend, Simone White, and a crowd of others at the hostel’s happy hour. CCTV footage shows the group laughing in the warm air of the open bar in the town of Vang Vieng, green and red lights dancing over their shoulders
Londoners told to be vigilant with messages after cyber-attack on council
A London council has urged thousands of residents to be “extra vigilant” when receiving calls, emails or text messages after confirming that data had been taken in a cyber-attack.The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (RBKC), which has 147,500 residents, said some data had been copied from its systems in an attack this week.The council said it believed the theft related to “historical data” but it was checking whether it contained any personal or financial details of residents, customers or service users.“With advice from the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), we are encouraging all residents, customers and service users to be extra vigilant when called, emailed or sent text messages,” the council said.Three London councils have been affected by cyber-attacks this week, with RBKC and Westminster city council saying a number of systems had been affected across both authorities, including phone lines
The loss of access to and respect for autonomous midwifery is tragic | Letters
I’m an NHS midwife, despairing over your article (Influencers made millions pushing ‘wild’ births – now the Free Birth Society is linked to baby deaths around the world, 22 November). My key frustration, though, is how, as with any successful charlatanism, there is truth and real fear being exploited: medical overreach blights lives, women can and should trust their bodies, and a healthy body rarely grows a baby it can’t birth.However, physiology is not a perfected endpoint. Evolution continues with genetic variation spreading through a population by “survival of the fittest”. In the brutal “wild”, the least “well-adapted” (whether by health or circumstance) do not survive
We older people are always a footnote | Brief letters
As one of your older readers, I was looking forward to reading the interesting article on the five epochs of brain development (Brain has five ‘eras’, scientists say – with adult mode not starting until early 30s, 25 November). But why was I not surprised to find the final two epochs given just one sentence between them?Dave HeadeyFaringdon, Oxfordshire I was delighted to find out that the Royal Opera House is replacing its 26-year-old stage curtains. Perhaps the old ones could be reused to make new riser cushions for the stage of Huddersfield town hall. We’re still waiting to be levelled up. (See my Guardian letter, 14 February 2022
Expert panel advises against prostate cancer screening for most men in UK
Prostate cancer screening should not be made available to the vast majority of men across the UK, a panel of expert government health advisers has said, to the “deep disappointment” of several charities and campaigners.The UK National Screening Committee (UKNSC) has instead recommended that there should be a targeted screening programme for men with a confirmed BRCA1 or BRCA2 faulty gene variant, which means they are more at risk of faster growing and aggressive cancers at an earlier age. Men in that category could be screened every two years between the ages of 45 and 61, they said.The committee found that the “harms would outweigh the benefits” if it were to recommend prostate cancer screening for all men or for men with a relevant family history of cancer, as it could lead to a small reduction in the number of prostate cancer deaths but “very high levels of over-diagnosis”.When it came to screening black men, who have an elevated risk of prostate cancer, the committee found current evidence to be “lacking and uncertain”
What is prostate cancer and should I be worried if I wee a lot at night?
Prostate cancer is cancer that starts in the prostate gland, a small gland that sits just below the bladder and makes part of the fluid that forms semen. It is the biggest cause of cancer in men in the UK, with about 55,300 diagnoses and 12,200 deaths a year. It is the second most common form of cancer, after breast cancer. In many men, prostate cancer grows slowly, but in some it can grow and spread more quickly.The incidence of prostate cancer has risen by 55% since the early 1990s
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