Cricket: Double act of the brothers with attitude

Cricket

They share more than 20 nicknames, most of them exotic, and genuinely cannot wait for both the verbal and physical battles of an Ashes summer to start.

Tough, uncompromising, highly talented and with a mission to make their mark in the new-look England set-up, the brothers Hollioake yesterday gave a demonstration of the super-competitive attitude and spirited sense of fun which England's selectors believe can help surprise the Australians this summer.

Adam and Ben, in a knock-about press conference following England's practice at Headingley, claimed they rarely have anything nice to say about each other.

But they both laughed off suggestions that the Aussie players would knock them off their confident stride with insults about deserting their Australian background.

Kent's Perth-raised fast bowler Martin McCague was repeatedly called "traitor" by Mark Taylor's team in his three Tests against them, after being labelled "the rat who joined the sinking ship'' in an Australian newspaper.

Adam, 25, has an up front attitude well-known to Australian players following last winter's England A tour Down Under, which he led with great success. He said: "I was pretty bad when I first started playing, and I regret a few things. But if someone has a go at me then I'm not shy about giving it back. The Aussies like having a word, but that's their culture. I often do things to wind people up."

Ben added: "There's three things you can do. You can ignore it and let them concentrate on that and not their game which is my way. You can get fired up, which is Adam's way. Or you can crack up under it."

Their whole upbringing, though, has been in an ideal atmosphere of competition. The many nicknames, too, reveal a bouncy, hard-edged approach to life.

"We like having a pop at each other, and at those around us," Adam said. "We give out nicknames and end up with a lot ourselves. Off the field we rarely say anything nice about each other."

"We are into each other all the time, always baiting each other. On the field, too, we can gee each other up a lot.

"We compete at everything always have. The arguments we have had when we've been playing computer games. But the table tennis matches when we were growing up were the worst."

Ben added: "I reckon we never finished a game. It would get to 19-19 and the allegations of cheating would start."

There is a serious side to the Surrey siblings' rivalry, of course. "Ben has a great natural talent," Adam said. "He's got all the good genes, for sure, and I've had to work much harder to get to this level than he has. But we've both learned our cricket in England and we can't wait to get going."