McGrath takes pot-shot at'soft' Monty

London, Oct 5 (UNI) As the Ashes draw near, Glenn McGrath has intensified his verbal attacks on the England team with Monty Panesar becoming his latest target after he described the left-armer's sessions with a psychologist to cope with the expected crowd abuse in Australia as ''ridiculous''.

The veteran medium pacer said the spinner was acting too 'soft' by resorting to counselling and felt Monty was allowing the hype surrounding the series to get to him.

''If he's seeing a psychologist already then I think it's a bit premature and a bit ridiculous. And if he is seeing a psychologist, yes, it's a bit soft. When we go to England we cope a hard time but we don't see a psychologist beforehand,'' McGrath reportedly told a Sydney-based Radio Station.

Monty has been attending counselling sessions with England's Ashes psychologist to prepare for a ''worse than the worst case scenario'' during the much-anticipated series Down Under, where he is likely to get a hostile reception from the Australian fans.

McGrath, however, played down the whole thing and said it was not as big an issue as was being made out by the British media.

''I think it's just a bit of media hype, probably the English media saying he's going to cops a hard time over here, but to me that's just cricket,'' he said.

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