September 28 Saturday 2002
Safety-first England faces Ashes whitewash: Tendulkar 

COLOMBO: Safety-first England will struggle to win a test on their upcoming Ashes tour against Australia, according to Sachin Tendulkar. "It's going to be tough," the player regarded as the world's best batsman said on Friday during the ICC Champions Trophy in Sri Lanka. 

"England will have to play positive cricket and Australia have always done that. It's not going to be easy for England to go out there and win a test match, get 20 wickets and score runs. 

"Australia are a serious side." Australia have won the Ashes seven times in a row since 1986. Tendulkar suggested England skipper Nasser Hussain would not have the enterprise to challenge the Australians, saying that he had expected England to be more positive in the recent series against India when the sides went into the fourth and final test at The Oval on level terms. 

The test ended in a tame draw after both sides piled up more than 500 runs in their first innings. Tendulkar said if England had been more positive a result could have been possible. He also refuted Hussain's recent comments that India, rather than his injury-hit side, should be disappointed by the outcome of that test series. 

"We won the test series at home and drew the one-dayers. Then we went there and won the one-dayers and drew the tests. "So we are actually two up, not just one up, on England," Tendulkar said.