The position of Test cricket has come under real scrutiny in
the last few days with players like Adil Rashid and Alex Hales opting to retire
from the red-ball format in order to prolong their career in the limited overs format.
Their English team-mate, Moeen Ali, meanwhile, had opined
that the Ashes series “opened” his eyes as he thought that the crowd during the
series was “disappointing.”
“It’s been a worry for a while but Australia really opened
my eyes. I found it disappointing,” Ali had said.
“I feared (for the future) in the Ashes, actually. The
crowds were quite disappointing in general."
These words from Moeen Ali didn’t go down well with legendary former Australian former captain, Steve Waugh, as according to the report published by Cricket Australia, a total attendance of 866,732 was there during the five matches of the Ashes series.
This is the highest number of attendance since the 1936-37 edition of the competition.
As a result, Waugh labeled Ali as “delirious” and suggested that Australia’s aggression against him pinned him to the wall and his own poor performances might have affected his head.
“I think he might have been a bit delirious the whole tour,”
Laureus ambassador Waugh told Press Association Sport.
“His form wasn’t there, Moeen. He’s a very good player but
he was one of the guys that didn’t live up to his reputation in Australia.
“Australia really went hard at him, particularly with the
ball. They bowled short, they thought there was a weakness, and I think his
form with the ball suffered from that.
“He’s a quality player but he had a poor series in
Australia. When your form is off, you think the whole world is against you.”
As a result, Waugh believes, Ali couldn’t soak in the
environment generated by the large number of crowd during the series.
“Maybe he didn’t really take in what was going on around
because it was a great series in regards to crowds, it was full and the
atmosphere was fantastic.
“When you’re not playing well and things are against you, everything seems bad.”
Picture credit: Getty Images
