England's beanpole advantage

England's Ashes attack has three extremely tall bowlers - Chris Tremlett, Steven Finn and Stuart Broad - and the bounce they extract in Australia could make run scoring difficult for the batsmen, writes Mike Selvey in the Guardian.

The England bowling coach, David Saker, says: "History shows that taller bowlers are usually the better ones, especially in Australian conditions." And as he speaks, he is mindful that in his care are Steven Finn and Chris Tremlett, both 6ft 8in, as tall as Curtly Ambrose or Joel Garner, the tower blocks that generally come to mind when the height of bowlers is discussed, and Stuart Broad, who is 6ft 5in. No taller group has represented England. No Australian can top that and it is a factor that has not gone unnoticed in Australia. "It is England's beanpole bowlers versus Australia's pygmy slingers" opined Tasmania's Mercury newspaper on Tuesday, "and it's advantage England."