Mixture of fun, talent and joy behind England's golden success: Swann

London, Jun 29 (ANI): Spinner Graeme Swann has said that the success of English cricket's golden generation is down to a mixture of fun, talent and joy.

He said the performance of the team has soared since they vowed to play without the fear that afflicted previous teams.

England will attempt to extend their winning lead over Australia in the NatWest series to 4-0 at the Brit Oval on Wednesday.

In all formats of the game, England has won 16 straight matches that have not been affected by the weather, The Sun reports.

They currently hold The Ashes, the World Twenty20 and an unbeatable lead in a 50-over series against the world No.1 Australia.

Swann said: "Our coach Andy Flower has been the architect. He sat us down 12 to 18 months ago and said it's not good enough winning a series here or there - we have to beat the best in the world consistently.

"The great thing Andy has done is instill a confidence in everyone to back their ability and perform on the big stage."

"That was exemplified in the World Twenty20. Maybe we didn't play with carefree abandon but we certainly had a joyous approach compared to how England teams had approached it previously," he said.

"Obviously, if we'd gone and played with a smile on our faces and got smashed, we'd be looking for a new coach and captain," Swann added. (ANI)