For some time I have been suspicious of how English sportsman cope when they are faced with confrontation and bullying by their opponents.

I always get a feeling that, because of our imperialistic past and the old Etonian influence in cricket and rugby in particular, that we suffer from a superiority complex that acts as a driving force to our opponents.

I have seen it first hand in cricket trials in Hampshire that, unless you have Bothamesque talent, you will always be overlooked in a network of favouritism, nepotism and the name of your school.

These people are very often unpleasant characters who look down on anyone who dare knock down the barriers of nepotism (look how Botham was treated) and if it is like this at county level, God only knows what it is like in the corridors of Lords and Twickenham.

This form of elitism tends to get us sport lovers tarred with the same brush and as a sporting nation we become widely despised by our neighbours in Scotland and Wales as well as our friends in the colonies who are constantly reminded by the numbskulls in the Barmy Army, where their place apparently is.

I met several members of the Barmy Army in India in 2006 and I really didn’t like them at all. I found them jingoistic, bordering on moronic and I generally spent my days trying to concentrate on the game amidst the din of shit songs about the Queen and Jerusalem.

Their St George bedecked conductor is an annoying fool with no apparent interest in the game (but probably plenty in UKIP) and if I was an opposing player, it would add to my determination to beat them.

I’m afraid to say the Barmy Army are full of people described as “characters” and “nutters” which lends a hefty amount of weight to my theory that if someone is described as a nutter or a character, it generally means they are in fact, mentally retarded.

So what happens is that when the English have some success, they become arrogant and pompous and turn up backed by elitist jingoism to teach the old colonies that Blighty rules okay. It’s embarrassing from day one.

In Australia, England set themselves up perfectly to get ambushed by an Aussie team still seething in humiliation after the disastrous Test series in England that went catastrophically wrong in every department and was blighted by the shameless cheating of Stuart Broad.

England turned up as arrogant favourites and capitulated as Australia turned on them like a pack of hungry hounds and ate them alive. If you are big enough to stand up to bullies like Australia have done, they will always capitulate, whether it is in sport, or in life.

To make matters worse England got indignant that the Aussies should be allowed to act in such a manner and they have shamefully tried to drag them (Australia) into the gutter as a distraction for their own ineptitude. Hence the term “whinging poms”.

This series has become one of bitter accusations and recriminations with England blatantly trying to taint Australia’s supremacy, claiming they were saying nasty things about their (English) players…Aw diddum’s.

In truth, Australia haven’t helped themselves, with some players, the detestable David Warner in particular, rising to the bait and potentially tarnishing Michael Clarke’s excellent captaincy. Clarke will do well to tell Warner to wind is neck in and let his bat talk to England.

England themselves, reached a new childish low by not applauding a thumping century by Shane Watson and their petulance was rewarded with gusto in the form of a record 28 in one blistering over from George Bailey.

The Aussies Have Revelled in Rubbing England Noses into the Dirt

Beating the Aussies is what it is all about, I love Ashes cricket, but the way England have played and conducted themselves in this series smacks of an arrogant bully turning up in the playground, getting bopped on the nose and running home to mummy.

In my opinion, England need to find new way of conducting themselves and respecting their opponents more, because the perceived arrogance that we possess on the rare occasions we are successful, always ends up with egg smeared faces.

They also need to tell the Barmy Army to piss off.

What catalysts England turned out to be, they loaded their guns then they ran off home for their Tea…Left us standing like naughty schoolboys!