Send woeful England home, say Australian media

CRICKET: SYDNEY, Jan 27 (Reuters) - England's shambolic tour of Australia plunged to a new low on Saturday, with calls for the visitors to be sent home.

Hundreds of England's most loyal supporters, the so-called Barmy Army, flew home after the 5-0 Test-series whitewash.

The Australian media now believe the players should do likewise following the nine-wicket defeat by the hosts in the triangular one-day series on Friday.

"Send them home. Refund all tickets. Give them a fresh batch of OBEs, for being Obscenely Bad Englishmen," Robert Craddock wrote in Sydney's Daily Telegraph.

"Andrew Flintoff is captaining one of the greatest British comedy outfits to visit our shores but people have stopped laughing." Andrew Ramsey, writing in The Australian, said: "In the era of reality television, the time has surely come for England's cricketers to be voted off this island.

"To be bowled out for 110 in less than 2 1/2 hours on one of the world's best batting pitches (Adelaide) against an opposition team resting two of its best-credentialled bowlers was more than embarrassing.

Astonishingly awful

It stank of a team that has as little pride as it does character." Peter Roebuck, the Sydney Morning Herald columnist who once captained England to a one-day defeat by Netherlands, said the visitors appeared to have given up.

Under the headline "Bury this corpse, it's starting to smell", Roebuck said he could not remember seeing a worse performance by an international team in 25 years.

"England were astonishingly awful. Flintoff's side produced the most lamentable display of batting seen from an international team in the antipodes for a quarter of a century," he wrote.

"Nothing springs to mind that can be compared with this awful performance from a precious, pampered and overpaid outfit that showed none of the fighting spirit so long associated with their country."

Chloe Saltau, writing in The Age, said England's performance vindicated the fears of Australia coach John Buchanan that his team's preparations for the World Cup in March were being harmed because they were not being put under enough pressure."England's most woeful display so far has confirmed the widening gap between committed Australia and a touring team that is broken beyond repair," she wrote.

"Not even a pre-match grenade lobbed into the English camp by Australian coach John Buchanan, pleading for a contest, could provoke Andrew Flintoff's team to provide the locals with anything more than the gentlest of training runs."

Reuters