The Ashes matters more to us, admit England players

New Delhi, Oct 8 (UNI) England players today made no secret their Ashes-obsession and stated unequivocally that retaining the urn topped their priority even as they take the ongoing Champions Trophy earnestly.

After their Champions Trophy assignment, England go down under in their quest to defend the urn they won after 14 years in an epic series last year.

''The Ashes certainly is very huge. We enjoy our cricket and hopefully this young side can handle the pressure of playing in the big series. It (the Ashes) will exactly be the same as last year -- one heck of a tough series,'' said swashbuckling middle-order batsman Kevin Pietersen.

''Before that, however, we have two huge games coming up against India and Australia in the Champions Trophy and for now we are concentrating on that,'' he added.

Left-arm spinner Ashley Giles, who is returning from a hip-injury and would not play in the month-long one-day tournament, was more forthcoming and said, ''To be honest, its the Ashes for us.

We have to win both the Ashes and the World Cup. But Champions Trophy is an excellent opportunity to gain some momentum.'' Middle-order batman Paul Collingwood said his side was looking forward to the encounter with the Aussies in the Champions Trophy and wanted to gain an edge over arch-rivals by winning the October 21 match to be played in Jaipur.

''Obviously we are keen to draw the first blood. Sometimes these encounters help a lot. Like our win in the Twenty20 games before last year's Ashes boosted our morale and gave us self-belief and the rest was history,'' he said.

Yesterday, England coach Duncan Fletcher took great pain to emphasise that his team was here in India to win and set its one-day record right but couldn't resist adding that the experience would help in their ensuing quest to retain the urn.

''The Champions Trophy gives us an opportunity to test ourselves and perhaps we can take the positives from here to the next situation which is the Ashes,'' the coach had said.

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