Ponting's team meeting, as it happened.

An article appeared on cricinfo yesterday in which Ponting said the Ashes should not be the entire focus of Australia's current thinking, because they have the tour to India and some ODIs against Sri Lanka before that series begins.

Last night I was on the phone to Steve Smith - he likes me to read him a bedtime story every night when he's away from his mummy - and he let slip some of the things Punter had said in a team meeting yesterday. With only a small amount of coersion from me (No lollipops were involved. He'd already brushed his teeth.), he agreed to email me first thing this morning with the following:

Ricky Ponting speaking to the Australian team - 

[loudly chews him gum] Ok, guys. Now, I know the Ashes are coming up in November but that cannot be the focus of our attention at the moment. We go to India first and then we play Sri Lanka a bit and then we have the Ashes. We want the Ashes back very much; I think we can win 5-0 and we have done lots of research on the England team, but we can't focus on that right now. Even though it's the Ashes and it's really, really important that we win the series. But let's not focus on that right now. 

You can read about the Ashes in my new book, there's plenty about it in there. Lots about the Ashes, which we want to win back. But that can't dominate our thoughts just yet - we have to think about India. India are the number 1 test side in the world and doing well against them will be great preparation for the Ashes. Because we want to win the Ashes. We really, really do. But that's not our focus right now. It's just the Ashes. 

We know that England will come into the Ashes with pretty much the same side as 2009 while our players will be much more experienced; and the important players with injuries will be back so we can win the Ashes back, even though that is not what we are thinking about right now. We haven't really seen Jonathan Trott, who will probably play in the Ashes, but we will watch lots and lots of videos of him before the Ashes. So that we can be ready for him when the Ashes starts. This is after India, which we are focussing on.


Not the Ashes. India. Which is before the Ashes. So is Sri Lanka, who will come to Australia right before the Ashes. We're thinking about India now, not the Ashes. We'll be using India to get Siddle and Hauritz match fit for the Ashes, so it's important we think about that now. Not the Ashes. We're not focussing on the Ashes. No Ashes.


Got it?

There you have it, just as Smith gave it to me but with the swear words and the incidents with the voodoo dolls edited out. I thought you'd be offended.