Strauss - England are focused

England captain Andrew Strauss wants to set the tone for 2011 in Sydney next week as his side look to win the Ashes outright.

The tourists enter the New Year in exultant mood having already retained the urn against Australia and with the World Cup soon to follow, Strauss wants more of the same.

He and coach Andy Flower are also plotting an assault on the International Cricket Council Test rankings.

Success in both would be firsts for England, who have finished runner-up three times in nine World Cups.

Whilst Strauss and Flower place great emphasis in forward planning, they will not do so at the expense of the next milestone England hope to achieve: their first outright Ashes win Down Under in 24 years.

Ahead of Monday's fifth and final Test, Strauss said:"(That is) all the more reason for not taking our eye off the ball.

"The nature of international cricket - there's no time to sit back and dwell on what has been - you're always looking forward to the next event."

The event in question is this winter's sub-continental World Cup, with home Test series against number one-ranked India and Sri Lanka - also currently above England in the rankings - to come.

Motivating

For now, though, Strauss says the focus is firmly on the SCG.

"Clearly we want to win the Ashes and not just retain them - and then you look at the World Cup, and Sri Lanka and India... they're huge series ahead of us, and that's pretty motivating and exciting,"he said.

England started the winter placed fourth in the Test rankings but are due to rise significantly if they can avoid defeat at least in Sydney.

With ever more attention on the ICC tables, thanks to the prospect of a Test championship in 2013, there is much to be gained.

"If we win the Sri Lanka and India series, we're going to be closer than we are now,"Strauss said.

"They're not going to be easy by any means, and we can't think about them too much at this stage."

Before then comes the World Cup, in which England are hoping to add only their second ICC global tournament success - the first came in the World Twenty20 last spring.

Strauss is adamant it is within the capabilities of the current squad.

"Yes, absolutely,"he said.

"Our one-day cricket has come a long way after the last two years or so, and we've got huge confidence from winning the Twenty20 World Cup.

"But those conditions[in Asia] are quite unique, and we need to play them well."

Lasting improvement

Strauss, who is also the one-day international captain, added that England are optimistic of lasting improvement in all three formats.

"Success breeds success, there's no doubt about it,"he said."The key is not to let that slip.

"We are in a special little purple patch, and the easy way to get out of that purple patch is by assuming it's just going to continue.

"That's a bit of a warning sign."

Of course, England have had those in recent times - their innings victory in the second Test in Adelaide followed by a 267-run defeat in Perth.

"Perth proved to us that there's a very real danger that if you're not 100 per cent right you're going to get beaten again,"added Strauss.

"That's why we're looking forward to this week and hoping to put that to bed.

"You've got to be careful you don't take your foot off the accelerator."

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