'Look down on Australia' - Wright

John Wright has given England some Ashes series advice by telling them not to let the Australians know if they are overawed. Wright was in charge of India's drawn series with Australia in 2003-04 and he has used his new book John Wright's Indian Summers to outline his successful plan, which was initially devised from his time as a New Zealand opening batsman in the 1980s.

"You don't look up to them, you look down on them - if you give any hint of being overawed you are gone," Wright told the India team as he stood on a chair to deliver his series address. "The players looked up at me with bemused expressions probably wondering if I planned to jump or fly." The tactic worked as Sourav Ganguly guided India to a 1-1 result in Steve Waugh's final series, although Australia gained revenge with a 2-1 win on their tour in 2004.

Wright told The Courier-Mail the New Zealand teams of the 1980s just stood and watched the "guys in green and gold track suits". "As soon as you start doing that you are losing the battle," he said. Despite the attitude to their opponents, New Zealand won four of 16 Tests between the teams in the decade and beat Australia in consecutive home-and-away series in 1985-86.

Wright, who scored two hundreds and averaged 38.69 in 19 Tests against Australia, told the paper touring teams also had to accept they would be targeted by the media. "It's so predictable it really should be on the itinerary," he said. "Some well-known ex-players start to talk then one of the current team chips in with his view. Depending on your view it's either psychological warfare, cheap pointscoring or the same old bullshit. We were never intimidated in that series [in 2003-04], which is the key to playing in Australia."

England showed in the first session of the 2005 Ashes series that they would not be overawed, with their fast bowlers striking Hayden, Langer and Ponting. Despite losing the opening Test, the side recovered to seal a 2-1 victory that set up a thrilling rematch that starts at the Gabba in November.