Sledging turns this into war, says Alastair Cook

Alastair Cook said on Sunday that the Ashes series had turned into a "war" after his England side suffered a humiliating 381-run defeat by Australia in a bitterly contested first Test at the Gabba.

As the Australians chased victory yesterday, the stump microphone picked up Michael Clarke, the Australia captain, telling England's last man, James Anderson, to "get ready for a f------ broken thumb" as he prepared to face Mitchell Johnson, forcing umpire Aleem Dar to step in. In a spell before lunch, Johnson had verbally abused Cook in an attempt to unsettle the England captain as he tried to save the Test.

England have faced aggression at every turn from the moment they set foot in Australia. It has come from the -players on the field, taunts in media interviews and has been taken up by certain sections of the Australian press eager to unsettle the tourists, even inciting the crowd to abuse the England players. David Warner upped the ante when he claimed that England had "scared eyes" facing Johnson and that Jonathan Trott's dismissal was "poor and weak" in the second innings on Saturday.

The kind of behaviour on the field yesterday has endured for generations between England and Australia and Cook accepted it was part of the battle, but he felt some of the comments had gone over the top. "I think the comment last night by David Warner was pretty disrespectful to any professional cricketer really," Cook said.

"On the pitch it's pretty much a war anyway so there's always going to be a few battles and a few words on the pitch. That's the way people want to watch cricket being played, tough, hard cricket, which on the pitch is fine." It is very unusual for Cook to be so outspoken, so his comments on Warner are indicative of the anger building within the England dressing room over the antics of some of the Australian -players. Cook said the "needle" was a consequence of two teams playing 10 Tests against each other in a short period, while Clarke put it down to the nature of Ashes rivalry.

"I think the rivalry and banter on the field, it's give and take both ways," Clarke said. "It's not one team dic-tating to the other. There are plenty of things said on the field you don't overhear on stump mic. They're meant to stay on the field. That's part and parcel of the game. For Warner or 'Mitch' or 'Watto', they really love that competitive battle. They love opposition talking to them or having a crack back at the opposition: that is what drives them. "I'm sure there are plenty of guys in the England team - I think Jimmy Anderson has made that clear that he likes that battle as well." Cook admitted that England had to find an answer to the problems caused by Johnson and backed Trott to bounce back. "We've got to look at the way we're going to play him [Johnson]," he said.

"You can't brush the issue under the carpet, he's hurt us in this game and we're going to have to come back and show our ability in the next game. He [Trott] has had a little blip in these last couple of games but he's a class player and class players bounce back." Trott worked hard on the short ball before the series started and Australia could sense his apprehension. "He's been thinking about the short ball, from what I've seen. In the nets, practising a lot of short ones," said Johnson, the man of the match.

"There were a couple of nice ones that were zinging past his nose, and as a fast bowler you give a bit of a stare and have a look into the eyes and I don't know, there might have been a little bit of fear there maybe. I'll keep doing it. It's working." England fly to Alice Springs tomorrow and head straight to Uluru for an overnight visit before playing a two-day match starting on Friday. It is a chance to regroup and remember the spirit that enabled them to come from behind to win in India last year.

"In Ahmedabad everyone was -looking at us and wondering how we could play cricket and we bounced back to win an amazing series in India." Cook said. "The first thing we have to do is remember we are a very good side and there are some very good players in the -dressing room. We've had a bad game and we can hold our hands up and say that, but we've got 10 days now to go away and we'll stay strong as a unit and we'll come back fighting."