Rod Marsh has dropped his impartiality. The former England Academy coach wants Australia to win back the Ashes.

"England are not paying my bills any more. I have no allegiance there whatsoever apart from the guys that were at the academy," Marsh said.

"I really hope those boys do well, but I hope we win."

Among Marsh's "boys" is Monty Panesar, whom team coach Duncan Fletcher described a few months ago as the world's best finger spinner, but who has been left out of the England team for the first two Tests.

Another is Chris Read, whom Marsh rates as a much better wicketkeeper than Geraint Jones, but who has also been dropped.

Marsh shook his head in disbelief when the news buzzed round Adelaide Oval that Panesar had been left out again, despite the failure of the England pace attack in Brisbane and the uncertainty over Steve Harmison's form.

"I think I'm just as shocked as everyone else," he said.

"I just can't fathom it. Don't have to now."

Marsh believes it is wrong that Fletcher wields so much power as a touring selector, effectively overriding the opinions of home-based selectors David Graveney and Geoff Miller.

He concedes that is a factor in why he wants Australia to regain the Ashes. "But more importantly I am Australian. It wasn't easy being an Australian in England last year."

In recent years Marsh has liked to think of himself as a cricketing internationalist, an impartial observer whose main concern is the welfare of the game worldwide.

As coaching director of the cricket academy in England for three years until October last year, Marsh kept his nationality locked in a drawer, just as he did when he was setting up an equivalent operation in India a decade earlier.

Now as he gets on with the task of putting together the ICC's international coaching academy in Dubai, due to open at the end of 2007, Marsh feels more than ever a responsibility to the world game.

He is in a unique situation. Plenty of people credit him with giving England the competitive edge over Australia last year.

But he also played a critical role in nurturing the talents of the current Australians.

There is hardly a player on the field on either side who hasn't been coached by Marsh at some time or other.

"This time I've got my old colours on big time," Marsh said.

"It's not the end of the world if they don't, but in the end you want us to have the Ashes back and if in the meantime if there is great cricket played, that is fantastic."

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