Swann wants to make the most of home advantage

10 April 2012

Graeme Swann has pleaded with the groundsmen at England's international venues to give the team the best chance possible of winning matches.

England faced Sri Lanka at Trent Bridge today needing victory to square the five-match series and set up a decider at Old Trafford on Saturday.

Sri Lanka outplayed England at Headingley and Lord's after Alastair Cook's reign as permanent one-day captain had begun with an impressive 110-run victory at The Oval last Tuesday. While Swann admitted England had been below par in the second and third matches, he claimed they had not been helped by the conditions.

"I'm a big believer in using home advantage," said the off-spinner. "When we go to Sri Lanka, they don't play on green seamer-friendly wickets just so they can get used to the conditions before a tour of England.

"Because we have a strong seam attack and have batsmen who are good players of seam bowling, I'd like to see wickets with more pace and carry. I think we all would.

"The last two wickets at Headingley and Lord's have, you could argue, been fairly subcontinental in the way they have played and that has played into the hands of the Sri Lankans a bit.

"I understand it's very difficult to prepare a wicket to order but, where possible, your conditions should suit your team. In the Test series against Sri Lanka, we had a couple of wickets where the ball went through and we showed that we were a formidable attack.

"The one slow wicket we came across, at Lord's, conditions were a lot easier for batting and the gap between the teams got narrower."

The view from the Sri Lankan side is, however, somewhat different. Mahela Jayawardene has been in supreme form in the previous two matches, scoring 144 at Headingley and 79 at Lord's and helping his team to achieve convincing victotries on both occasions.

Jayawardene has played 344 one-day internationals and he gave a damning verdict on England's performances in the 50-over game, claiming they had failed to make any substantial progress while he has been playing for Sri Lanka.

The former skipper said: "In terms of their one-day tactics, England probably haven't evolved very much since I first played against them in the late 1990s. They have the talent in the batting department but it's the combinations and other factors that come into play.

"Finding the right combinations and players finding their roles is as important as having the right talent. Those are things they might have to work on to improve."

Meanwhile, Essex captain and former England wicketkeeper James Foster has been banned by the ECB from playing in his county's next two matches as punishment for what the governing body believe is a persistent lack of discipline.

Essex players have been disciplined five times in the last 12 months and the ECB, as well as fining Essex £5,000, have decided the captain should take the majority of the blame.

An ECB statement read: "The regulations make it absolutely clear that the captain is responsible for discipline on the field and ensuring no repetition occurs.

"In our view, the captain's responsibilities are great and we conclude that taking all the mitigation into account that the correct penalty for the captain is an immediate two-match suspension from matches in Essex's First XI programme. Essex are ordered to make a £300 contribution towards the costs of the hearing."

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