Justin Langer attacks England’s lazy, shallow cricketers

A damning indictment of England's cricketers prepared for the current Australian Test team by their former opening batsman Justin Langer (pictured above with Australian captain Ricky Ponting, left) paints a picture of a squad of lazy, shallow players who rarely believe in themselves.

In a document that was apparently handed out to the entire Aussie team before the First Test, and was leaked to the Sunday Telegraph, Langer picks out bowler James Anderson as "a bit of pussy", slams wicketkeeper Matt Prior for his "massive ego" and knocks England's disastrous new number three batsman Ravi Bopara for "strutting about".

The Langer dossier made embarrassing reading in the pavilion at Headingley yesterday morning, as England crumbled to one of the worst defeats ever by Australia, losing by an innings and 80 runs, only two-and-a-half days into what was supposed to be a five-day game.

Langer wrote: "English players rarely believe in themselves. Many of them stare a lot and chat a lot but this is very shallow. They will retreat very quickly. Aggressive batting, running and body language will soon have them staring at their bootlaces rather than in the eyes of their opponent - it is just how they are built."

He went on: "As soon as it gets a bit hard you just have to watch their body language and see how flat and lazy they get. This is also a time when most of them make all sorts of excuses and start looking around to point the finger at everyone else - it is a classic English trait from my experience."

Some England players were picked out for particular attention:

♦ On James Anderson: "He is hugely improved but can be a bit of a pussy if he is worn down. His body language could be detrimental to them [England] if we get on top of him early."

♦ On Andrew Strauss: "He is a very solid character and excellent bloke. His weakness is possibly his conservative approach. He will tend to take the safer options in most cases."

♦  On Matt Prior: "I would chip away at him about his wicketkeeping [when 'sledging']. I would be reminding him about how it could see him out of the team. I would definitely work his ego."

Langer declined to comment to the Sunday Telegraph about his leaked dossier. But to make matters worse, former England captain Michael Vaughan used his Sunday Telegraph column to say: ³If I had been asked to write a dossier on English cricket, I would have come up with many of the same points. This is a reality check for the game's administrators in this country to change our structure." ·