Australians return to their heartbreak hotel

Michael Clarke said Steve Smith was one of a number of young Australians to have come a long way over the past 18 months 

Kensington's Royal Garden Hotel has been greeting Australian teams as their London base camp for 17 years. Early on, it was just another venue to experience the raucous celebrations that followed Antipodean victories - the 1999 World Cup, then the 2001 Ashes tour, which saw the urn retained in three matches spanning a mere 11 days. But ever since, the hotel has witnessed a catalogue of dismay and dejection, glum faces and doleful drinking sessions.

In 2005, the Australians sidled back into their rooms after giving up the urn on the final day of an epic series at The Oval, barely able to believe that their hubris and confidence had been outdone by the crazy-brave Kevin Pietersen, at a time when other members of England's collective were visibly wilting. Four years later, the corridors and rooms were privy to Nathan Hauritz's last desperate plea to Ricky Ponting about selection for the fifth Test, despite an unconvincing turn at training on the eve of the match. Five days later, Hauritz and Ponting returned to the Garden without the urn that had seemed in their keeping after an innings win at Headingley, both now saddled with the legacy of Ashes losers.

By 2013, the hotel's staff might have expected further misadventure, and it arrived in the form of Mickey Arthur's sacking as coach. The Cricket Australia chief executive James Sutherland and the team performance chief Pat Howard informed Michael Clarke of their decision at the hotel bar, causing Clarke to all but fall out of his chair. If these walls could talk, they would not have much happy to say for their Australian clientele.

Clarke was present for all these disasters, as the spiky-haired tyke in 2005, a maturing batsman in 2009 and a thwarted captain in 2013. Weighing up a history of English defeats at the outset of the 2015 tour, he did not think those old wounds would cause this touring team to sink into negative thoughts. On the contrary, he felt it would drive them.

"That's what you look forward to, the fact you haven't had as much success in that country, I think that's a real driving force for you - that makes you really hungry," Clarke said. "This is my fourth trip here and I'm looking forward to it as much as the first. You've got to be realistic enough to know how tough a challenge it is, but if that doesn't excite you, you're playing the wrong sport.

"I've seen a lot of hunger from the senior players who haven't had the chance to win over here. I think that's what's been driving us over the past couple of years to get out of bed and try to become better as an individual player and also as a team. What I've been most proud of in regards to this team in the last 12 months has been our attitude. No matter where we've played, hot day, cold day, our attitude in regards to trying to become better has been exceptional and I think you've seen that in our results. This would certainly be the icing on the cake, but it doesn't come easy. We know how hard it's going to be."

Australia's players are confident, but they have arrived here in strong spirits before. They were near enough to prohibitive favourites in 2005, and in 2009 they had just beaten South Africa on the veld to regain the No. 1 ranking. At about the same time England were being bowled out for 51 by the West Indies in Jamaica, but it counted for little when Stuart Broad ran through the Australians at The Oval.

"That's probably our greatest challenge," Clarke said. "I haven't won in England and as a team we haven't had that success. We've played some good cricket together, especially in Australia and I've spoken a lot about us trying to be more consistent away from home. We've got a huge challenge with these five Tests. I think if we play our best we'll give ourselves the best chance, but I've played for long enough and realistic enough to know that playing here is a really tough challenge. Look at our record over the last 10-15 years, it's certainly not what we'd like as an Australian team, but there's good reasons for that. England are very tough to beat at home."

Something both Clarke and the Royal Garden staff will notice is that this is a team more at ease with itself, its own identity and how to foster a winning environment. This may not be the closest and most brotherly of all cricket teams, but the balance between strong communication and on-field performance is well understood by all. They are unfazed by talk of England harnessing a more proactive brand of the game, or by the arrival of an Australian coach in Trevor Bayliss.

"We're in a better position as a team, we've played a lot more cricket together and have had more success. It's a confident bunch of cricketers in this squad," Clarke said. "But we're still just as respectful about how hard it is a challenge to win over here. With time together, getting to know each other and getting through the highs and lows together, I think you see a squad now that is very close. Whatever challenges lie ahead we'll stick together and find a way through them.

"We're expecting a really tough series against a team that will come out quite hard against us and if they decide to try to play that positive brand we'll be prepared for that. The most important thing is you've got a team with plenty of players in form and plenty of cricket under their belt, playing in conditions they're very accustomed to, against a team that's really excited to be back in England and look forward to the challenge that lies ahead.

"Clarke bristled a little when reminded that Jason Gillespie had referred to his side as "Dad's Army" but was more conciliatory about Graeme Swann's assertion that Steven Smith had as much chance of falling flat on his face as succeeding over these next five Tests. "I'm sure he's probably just trying to get under the skin of a few of the players," Clarke said. "It's not what you say, it's what you do, we'll find out in five Test matches' time if Steve Smith's good enough to have success over here. Smithy, like a lot of the young players, Davey Warner's another one, Nathan Lyon, you look at our pace attack, a lot of our young players have come a long way over the last couple of years.

"Their performances have been outstanding, and I think the senior players in the group deserve a lot of credit for helping mentor those guys, helping them through the tough times and I think we're seeing the benefit of that as a group now. The youth and enthusiasm of those younger players is going to help us, then the experience of the senior players is crucial to the squad as well. Hopefully that perfect mix comes together."

Should that mix be brought to the boil, the Royal Garden may finally witness raucous Australian celebrations once again. If not, Cricket Australia would surely be asking the ECB whether the 2019 Ashes tourists can stay at some other posh hotel.