Matt Prior’s refusing to turn up heat on rivals’ meltdown

England responded to the crisis in Australian cricket today by saying precisely nothing.

While privately they must have been guffawing into their kitbags at the unprecedented mess their Ashes opponents are in, the public persona featured a dead straight bat that was alien to them in the first innings of the First Test against New Zealand last week.

Matt Prior, the new vice-captain, said: “We focus completely on what we’ve got to do here. We’ve got a big game coming up and that’s one of those things that will make us start the Test match badly — focusing on something else that isn’t relevant to what we want to do or want to concentrate on.

“We’ll just prepare as well as the England team can prepare and leave the rest to worry about their own stuff.”

But Prior and his colleagues will have followed every twist and turn of Australia’s virtual meltdown in Chandigarh. Already 2-0 down in the series against India, they have dropped four players for failing to return a form inviting them to assess their performances.

Asked how England dealt with ‘feedback’ — which might have been necessary following their wretched efforts early in the Test at Dunedin last week — Prior chose the jocular route involving his loquacious team-mate Graeme Swann, who has left the tour with an elbow injury. “It’s easier now, because Swanny’s not here — so everyone else can get a word in,” Prior said. “Each team will have their own ways and means.

“The coaching and management staff will have their own ways of doing stuff and we have ours. I’m not prepared to go into too much detail about what that is.”

While England are quite prepared to let Australia sort out their own problems, they are also desperate to avoid being deflected from the matter of winning this series against New Zealand by discussing the Ashes later this year.