It has been an eventful start - Mark Butcher needing 10 stitches after ducking into a half-volley at Perth. A cut over his other eye after a training drill has given him the appearance of a fighter the morning after a bout. But soon the shadow boxing ends and Brisbane, the first Test and the Ashes are upon us.
Although Brisbane, aided by Ian Botham's last Test century, sparked off England's last successful Ashes campaign, it is not a ground that holds many recent happy memories. In 1990-1 Graham Gooch missed the Test match with a hand injury and Allan Lamb was the stand-in captain. Of course, all good captains are gamblers by nature but Lamb took this maxim too literally when seen out in a casino until the early hours with Kerry Packer after the second day's play. His gamble backfired when he was dismissed by Terry Alderman's first over the next day. Australia wrapped up the match in three days.
The injuries that plagued the 1994-95 touring team began at the Gabba when Devon Malcolm withdrew from the first Test with, of all things, chicken pox. Despite many exhortations by the management to start well, some undisciplined bowling and a dire first-innings batting performance gifted the first Test to the Aussies.
Conditions at the Gabba can vary dramatically: in 1990-91 the pitch was damp and green and a seamers' paradise until the third day. By the time we next played there Shane Warne was on the scene and the pitch was dry, cracked and turned considerably by the end - funny that! The humidity is usually a constant factor though - remember Graham Thorpe fainting through dehydration here after a one-day international against Zimbabwe?
Usually the touring team have confronted the heat and humidity of Brisbane immediately after a four-day game in Hobart, Tasmania. For the uninitiated, Hobart's weather in November is like Manchester in April. Mount William, which looms over the Bellrive Oval, is usually snow-capped and four days' play is a rarity. This time, however, the team's immediate first Test preparations took place in Cairns, the second biggest town in Queensland yet, and this gives you some idea of the size of the place, still two hours' flying time from Brisbane.
If the venues have been different then the type of cricket played so far by this touring party has been little different to that played by our predecessors. We have played moderately thus far with plenty of room for improvement. I think the hardest thing for a touring party to do here, and especially for those yet to tour Down Under, is to get out of what I would call the 'county cricket mentality'.
By that I mean county cricket in England, largely because of its quantity, is played at three-quarter pace compared to here. Here you have to look for the quick singles all the time, you have to push hard for every run and you have to hustle more in the field and give off an intensity which needs to be maintained throughout the whole match. I certainly recognise that, more than I did on my first tour here and the team management are drumming that into the squad.
Despite this there have been real plusses so far. A hundred for Nasser Hussain in Perth, a record-breaking partnership between Thorpe and Mark Ramprakash, runs and wickets for Dominic Cork in Adelaide and an impressive debut there by Alex Tudor. Even Fraser rediscovered the nip and radar so missing in Perth. I do not believe personal form is a problem for anybody at the moment, but the team must realise that they have to up the intensity levels in general, for there is only one way to beat the Australians and that is to play the Australian way; to contest every inch of ground, to match their commitment, to take a few risks and play as aggressively as they will.
Personally, the tour has started reasonably, with two fifties in three knocks, if slightly disjointed by the odd injury. I was slightly taken aback on arrival in Australia to be greeted by claims that I was ``running scared'' of facing Australia's opening bowler Glenn McGrath. What I was actually trying to say some weeks ago in this column was that he is a good bowler and I am looking forward to the challenge immensely. After all, that is what Test cricket is about.
Ironically, I was to face my first ball on this tour from the man who made those claims, the great Dennis Lillee. Fortunately, I did not succumb to the great man, who could not let the occasion go without his traditional Lilac Hill bouncer. ``Had to let you have one, Athers,'' he snarled. Old habits die hard.