Two weeks ago my post, Tennis Lessons, looked at one of the shared characteristics of tennis and cricket. They both can last a very long time,  relatively little with the ball in play, leaving plenty of time for focus on body language, the external signal of attitude.

In the case of the Aussies, particularly when it comes to the Ashes, their attitude has become the stuff of folklore.

Here are just a few  press comments over the last five days. “Can you feel it?  Here it comes, that familiar dark-green aura: unflappable, relentless, invincible.  They’re coming to get us”.

And this, also from the Telegraph: “It’s an expression chiselled by years in the sunshine, a squinting single-mindedness, a tunnel vision that excludes the peripheral flicker of doubt and self destructon.  Think you can beat me ?  Think again”.

In the event, thankfully, England’s (in Wales) tailenders came up with a bit of Aussie attitude of their own.

The lesson from the cricket pitch? Any prospect, whatever the declared criteria, will be  forming their judgement on attitude.  How hungry are they for my business?  How confident are they? Are they winners?

And the other lesson? It is the practice time in the nets, the rehearsal, that underpins the attitude!