November 13 Wednesday 2002
England's future bright, but Ashes another thing: Marsh

ADELAIDE, Australia: England cricket academy chief coach Rod Marsh is certain the nation's next crop of Test players will be talented and well-trained, but stops short of predicting they will reverse Australia's Ashes dominance.

Marsh, in his second season as head of the English academy, was appointed by the English Cricket Board to try to replicate the highly-successful program he ran for 10 years in a similar role with the Australian academy.

With Australia's 384-run drubbing of England in the opening Gabba Test putting the team on course to retain the Ashes for an eighth successive time, the pressure is on Marsh to produce a generation of players capable of turning the tables.

Marsh was unwilling on Tuesday to comment on the current series but was adamant the future of English cricket was bright, with the construction of a new academy at England's Loughborough University having started last week, and a talented group of youngsters under his guidance.

"The infrastructure is outstanding, everything is in place," Marsh said here, where the English academy squad is training while the new facility is being built. "I'm just hoping it's the academy that puts the final touch on these guys transition from junior cricket, to first-class, to Test cricket. "There's no reason why they can't be very good Test players."

But Marsh, who had a role in developing many of the current Australian players, said he could not guarantee the production of a generation of players capable of breaking Australia's Ashes stronghold.

"I'm convinced that there are enough good young players for England to be a very strong cricketing nation, that's all I'm going to say about this situation, what happens elsewhere is none of my business," he said.

Marsh said his most important task was to produce a new batch of pacemen, a job he admitted was becoming more urgent with injuries ravaging England's bowling stock. The latest casualty, Simon Jones, who trained at the academy under Marsh, is with the academy squad in Adelaide after suffering a serious knee injury on the opening day of the Gabba Test.

"There are some good young fast bowlers in England, it's only a matter of time until they break through." Marsh said he would prefer young pacemen not to be rushed into the Test side.

"I've always believed that a fast bowler is at their best at 25 to 35, not 20 to 30," he said. "I'm quite happy for a bit of patience with these youngsters, when they do get the opportunity they will be ready. "I'm more concerned about five or 10 years time then about tomorrow."