November 12 Tuesday 2002
Media mauling for embarrassed England

LONDON: England's humiliated cricketers were subjected to a predictable media mauling in the sports pages of Monday's newspapers. 

The day after being bowled out for 79 by Australia to crash to a 384-run defeat in the first Ashes Test in Brisbane, the headline writers showed no mercy on captain Nasser Hussain and his shell-shocked team. 

The Daily Telegraph emblazoned the front page of its sports section with "Reduced to Ashes" while the Daily Express ran the back page headline "Crushed". Inside, the Express headlined its story "Tossed on the scrap heap". 

The Daily Mail branded Hussain's team "Scared", adding that they were beaten before the match even started. 

The Sun quoted skipper Hussain as saying: "Everything went wrong from the toss to the close, it was diabolical". Former England captains Ian Botham and Mike Gatting were hardly more generous. Gatting laid the blame at Hussain's door, labelling his decision to put Australia in to bat as a "major boob". 

"Nasser's reason was to give his inexperienced side two hours to get into the Aussies," Gatting said in the Sun. "My argument is that if you bat and put 500 on the board then that will relax the bowlers far more. 

"We were back in the game after an excellent second day and then completely threw it away." 

Botham, also quoted in The Sun, said: "England looked like startled rabbits. Some of them talk a good game but it's time they walked the walk."