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Now maybe I shouldn't be so vocal in backing England coach Andy Flower over his decision to ban families from the start of the Ashes. After all I shall be at The Gabba on November 25 to watch the first balls bowled and the delectable Mrs Ellis will be with me.

The difference is I won't be playing. In fact I won't even be writing about it. We've managed to elbow a couple of days in Brisbane into the itinerary of a long-planned, once-in-a-lifetime holiday to Oz, and the only thing I'll be tapping into a keyboard will be a couple of teasing texts back home!

Of course if I had been working on the tour, well then I'm afraid the good lady would have been back in Blighty trying to catch up with it on the telly, just as she's been for all the other trips I've been lucky enough to be sent on. Work is work, family is family, and in my experience when you try to mix the two you end up looking after neither of them properly.

That's certainly the view of Flower as he sets out this weekend with his touring party, with the best chance of an England team of winning a Test series Down Under since Mike Gatting boarded the plane 24 years ago. He's told his 16-man squad, and support staff, that they won't be allowed to see their families until after the Perth Test has ended on December 7.

"We need that period at the start of the tour... it is important to get together and focus fully on the game," he says.

Hooray! There have been too many England squads in the past who have set off on cricket tours with the appearance of heading for a boozy holiday with a game or two thrown in. We've had the "Fredalo" affair in the West Indies, we've had players dashing home to see babies born, we've had gaggles of girlfriends, wives and kids round the hotel pool. The story goes that Steve Harmison spent much of the night before the first Test in Brisbane in 2006 fussing about his family, and we all know what happened when he bowled the opening ball of the Ashes series next day.

You sense there is a big opportunity for England, now 3.35 to win the series. The Aussies have so many problems. The latest doubt is over new bowling discovery Doug Bollinger who returned early from India suffering a stomach muscle strain which is starting to make him a doubt for the beginning of the season. In fact Michael Clarke had only 12 players available for the final ODI (which thankfully for him was rained off) after Michael Hussey was also sent home.

Of course nobody expects England's players to live like Trappist monks for the whole tour. Five months away including the World Cup is a long time, and it makes sense to make families welcome later in the trip. But Flower is absolutely right to want to get his team totally focused on winning from the word go. He's also insisted that the first matches will be proper competitive games, instead of the nonsense 13- or 14-a-side affairs which were played four years ago. The Ashes in Australia is arguably the most mentally daunting series in world sport, and nothing but total concentration will get you through.


Five things you might not know about Doug Bollinger...

1. Born July 1981 in the Baulkham Hills suburb of Sydney, he was 15 before he started playing cricket when he joined a local club Seven Hills Toongabbie.
2. After leaving school he worked in the mail room of a solicitor's office, then washed cars, built fences, and worked in a sports store - selling Australian cricket shirts.
3. He marked his call into Australia's elite cricket squad in 2008 by getting hair transplants and swapping a bald head for a thick toupee.
4. He celebrated his first international five wicket haul by kissing the badge - except his kissed the Foster's advertising logo by mistake.
5. He met wife Tegan during a cricket tour to Australia's Gold Coast - but lost her phone number. Fortunately she kept his. They have a 15 month old daughter called Skye.

By Ralph Ellis

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