Cook: 'Let cricket do the talking'

Alastair Cook plans to combat another hostile reception for his England team in the second Ashes Test by taking the Australian crowd out of the equation.

"You let your cricket do the talking,'' Cook said Wednesday, on the eve of the match at a new-look Adelaide Oval.

"Last time we had the same hostile environment when we got here, but toward the end of the series we played some really good cricket and that hostility changed because everyone was very respectful of the way we played.''

England is on a three-series roll in the Ashes, having won at home in 2009, in Australia in 2010-11 and finishing off a 3-0 win at home in August.

[left]Hostile conditions[/left]
[left]The impatience of Australian fans for a victory was evident during the first Test in Brisbane, with the level of vitriol directed toward the touring team even higher than the normal Ashes intensity.[/left]
[left]Former England player Derek Pringle wrote a newspaper column claiming England officials were so perturbed by the fans' behaviour that they raised questions over the Gabba's future as an Ashes venue.[/left]
[left]"Senior members of the England and Wales Cricket Board at the match were so astounded by the behaviour of Australia's supporters ... that representations have been made to Cricket Australia about the possibility of not playing there on future tours,'' he wrote for London's Telegraph.[/left]
[left]"England admit to sledging opponents but there was an intensity about the Brisbane Test, possibly whipped up by the boorish crowd,'' that unsettled players, officials and ex-players.[/left]
[left]The prospects of dropping the Gabba as an Ashes venue are extremely remote, with Australia unbeaten there in 25 years.[/left]
[left]The 381-run thumping Cook's team got from Australia in the series opener was accompanied by some angry exchanges between batsmen and fielders and "sledging'' has been among the most frequently uttered words in the 10 days of Ashes discussion since.[/left]