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Broad keen to match father's Ashes exploits
Stuart Broad has admitted his father will have family bragging rights until he too is a member of an England team that has won an Ashes series in Australia.
England begin their defence of the Ashes in Australia in November knowing that not since 1986/87 have they won a test series 'Down Under'.
Chris Broad, now an International Cricket Council (ICC) match referee, but then an opening batsman played a key role in that series in Australia with hundreds in three successive tests.
Stuart Broad, primarily a right-arm seamer but also, like his father, a left-hand bat, was just a few months old when Chris set off for a tour that has become etched in English memories.
Broad junior has already followed in his father's footsteps once by moving from his original county (in his case Leicestershire) to play for Nottinghamshire, at whose Trent Bridge headquarters he is set to feature for England in the first test against Pakistan on Thursday.
Now Stuart, whose five-wicket haul in last year's final test against Australia at The Oval helped England regain the Ashes 2-1, wants to be on the winning side in Australia as well.
"We had a video called 'On Top Down Under', which was about the (1986/87) series and I always used to watch it," Stuart Broad told the Independent newspaper. "With pride too, because of my dad's role.
"Whenever we talk about our careers, dad will always have the upper hand until we have won in Australia," added Broad, who heads into the Pakistan opener on the back of a first-class best of eight wickets for 52 runs for Nottinghamshire against Warwickshire.
He also said Australia, held recently to a 1-1 series draw in England by Pakistan, now looked a less formidable side than the one that dominated Ashes contests throughout the 1990s until England won in 2005 only to lose 5-0 on the subsequent tour.
"Any team that loses (Shane) Warne, (Glenn) McGrath, (Matthew) Hayden, (Justin) Langer, (Adam) Gilchrist in the space of two years is not going to be as strong as when these boys were in their pomp.
"But they still have world-class players."
"Even so, I feel this England team has an opportunity to create a legacy for the future in the same way as my father's team."
And England batsman Paul Collingwood insisted: "Everybody in the team is very confident that we can do it this time round. That's genuine confidence.
"We've had a good 18 months. We've had the building blocks, continued to grow and get things right."
He added: "I think we're ready. It really has come at a time when we can say we'll be as ready as we can ever be.
"We've just got to make sure in these next two months we
continue in that same manner."
