England look to strike a healthy balance between work and play and at the start of this Ashes week, as Australia trained at the ground to prepare for the first Test, the tourists were being, well, tourists. As well as the usual golfers, a handful of players took a boat trip out to Rottnest Island, with Brydon Carse later showing off an impressive fish he had caught.
My dad would be Australia and I'd be England, Mark Wood says with a wry smile when remembering his first Ashes Tests as a boy in his back garden in Ashington, Northumberland. I'd try to copy Darren Gough, Andrew Caddick, Matthew Hoggard and, later, Jimmy Anderson, who I'd go on and play with. My dad, who didn't do the actions so well, had to be Glenn McGrath, Jason Gillespie and Shane Warne. He was most proud of his Gillespie but his Warne wasn't great.