Rod Marsh: 'These guys think they are millionaires'

As befits a player whose formative years in the Australian side were spent under the caustic leadership of Ian Chappell, Rod Marsh earned a reputation for blunt talking. Age might have mellowed him a little, but he stills calls it as he sees it, and he has no doubts about the mountain he has to climb if he is to help England challenge Australia's dominance of the game.

"I would suggest they're going to have to get a wriggle on," Marsh, in India as coach of the England A side, admitted when asked about the chances of any success in the next Ashes series next summer.

"They've had it too easy for too long, some of these guys," he continued "There is a distinct lack of discipline. I can't see what's wrong with telling the truth. Maybe people don't like hearing the truth."

A heavy defeat in England A's first match prompted a characteristic broadside from Marsh . "To me, there was a team that looked like they knew how to play cricket and a team that had no idea. It was a very poor performance," he fumed. "We needed to spend some time in the middle but these guys think they are millionaires and have to play a shot a ball. The sooner they learn they can't, the better off everyone will be." He immediately ordered a re-match the following day. England lost again.

"Every time something goes wrong, they have a team meeting then think the problem is solved," he explained. "But they are the only ones who can help themselves and until they realise that, there is no point them being here."

Marsh believes that if the youngsters are hungry and pushing for places in the side then it will have a knock-on effect of making the senior players more conscious of the need to perform. But he warned that "at this point in time, they're not pushing hard enough. If they were, the England team would be performing 100% flat out all the time. They've got to say to the selectors, 'pick me', like Ed Smith did last year."

The games in India will be tough but, typically, Marsh would have it no other way. "If we came over here and there was no challenge then it would be quite boring for me," he said. "The challenge is to help these blokes improve. They're still babes really. They haven't seen much of the world."