Ditch the bias please

Just because Australians were on the receiving end of English bias in commentary and curried pitches during the previous Ashes, it doesn't justify a retaliation in these Ashes, writes Jake Niall, in The Age.

Well, ''what we need'' more than a quick wicket after drinks is commentary that isn't shameless barracking, that doesn't assume, as the English gaggle did, that everyone's with them. The vast majority of Australians might want the Aussies to win - though David Warner's mindless comments about Jonathan Trott doesn't make this team so loveable - but that doesn't give commentators a license to talk as though, to borrow from Australian ''bodyline'' skipper Bill Woodfull, only one team out there is playing cricket.