HUSSAIN: Touring Sri Lanka is tougher than playing in Australia

You just had to listen to Matthew Hoggard this week to appreciate the extent of the task which is facing England when they begin their three-Test series in Kandy tomorrow.

He was talking about how hard it is for the bowlers simply to grip the ball because of the heat and humidity and that's before they have even bowled very much.

I remember being on an A tour of Sri Lanka when Tim Munton had to stop bowling after five overs because he was so affected by the conditions that he was seeing pink elephants.

He wandered around for a bit, walked off the pitch and we didn't see him again on that tour.

It is equally tough for the batsmen to bat for any length of time, not that I have much personal experience of doing that in Sri Lanka! The sweat gets into your helmet and then it seeps down into your shirt and through to your gloves.

Graham Thorpe, indeed, used to get through something like 10 pairs of gloves every innings when he batted so well for us on our victorious tour of Sri Lanka in 2001.

It is simply one of the hardest places to win as a visiting team for all sorts of reasons on top of the conditions, which is why I look back so fondly on our 2-1 win in Sri Lanka after going one down during that winter when we also won in Pakistan.

Team spirit is crucial in the subcontinent. I mean real team spirit, not just the apparent shows of it which you can sometimes see on balconies.

Six years ago we were absolutely hammered in the first Test at Galle but what happened next was hugely significant. We just gathered round the pool that same night at our excellent hotel and talked and talked about playing cricket in Sri Lanka.

We got a few beers in, played a few silly games, refused to blame any bad decisions or discuss whether Murali chucked it or not. We just talked late into the night, while we were bitten by mosquitoes, about what we had to do to get back in that series.

It was possibly the best bonding exercise I have been involved in. We also spent a lot of time in each other's rooms on that trip, or playing corridor cricket and football, and that contributed hugely to what we subsequently achieved in Kandy and Colombo.

Ashley Giles and Craig White, for instance, became really close friends on that tour and you could see that when they were together on the pitch.

Compare that with the spirit in the England team last winter in Australia. There was clearly a real divide in the camp, as the revelations of Duncan Fletcher have now confirmed, and that was not conducive to giving Australia anything like a fight.

Spin is clearly a huge factor in Sri Lanka but this series will be so much more than Murali v Monty Panesar.

For England to win, they must look to one of the fast bowlers to perform, just as Darren Gough did for me in becoming the man of the series in 2001.

Gough really wasn't expected to be the main man in Sri Lanka because it just wasn't the sort of place where he should thrive. But he thought about his plan of attack, learned a new trick from bowling coach Bob Cottam and started bowling cutters and took eight wickets in the win at Kandy.

Now Michael Vaughan needs one of his quick men to do the same.

Cricket in Sri Lanka is a case of survival of the fittest, which was why the fighting qualities of my two little men in Gough and Thorpe were so crucial.

I saw that Kumar Sangakkara wrote at the weekend that in 2001 it was as if I was taking soldiers on to the battlefield to face him and his team rather than cricketers and that was exactly how I saw it too.

Sri Lankans are the nicest people, from the cricketers to everyone you meet. But once they cross that white line they are fierce competitors and you simply must not let them get on top of you, nor dictate terms.

Murali, of course, will be a key figure over the next month. Six years ago we played him pretty well but, by the time I returned to Sri Lanka under Vaughan in 2003 he had developed the doosra and that had a big impact.

There is one difference between Murali and Shane Warne. They are obviously great, great bowlers but whereas Warne would come back at you even stronger if ever you got on top of him, Murali can lose the plot if someone gets after him and gets the better of him.

I felt we were far too friendly towards Murali four years ago, as epitomised by Andrew Flintoff lending him the bat with which he subsequently held us up. I got into trouble by aiming a few words at Murali in response.

This time there must be no such repeat, just a designated England batsman to get after him.

While Thorpe did it by manoeuvring Murali, and other left-handers in Andy Flower and Brian Lara did it by sweeping him, the key man this time is a right-hander in Kevin Pietersen.

If Pietersen can dictate to Murali and, crucially, sit in there and not give it away to deep mid-wicket once set, then you can make him frustrated and not nearly as effective.

Yes, Murali can take the five wickets he needs to overtake Warne's record in Kandy but England must make sure he has to bowl 50 or 60 overs to get them because that will mean that you have the runs on the board to compete.

England need to start winning again to improve their Test record and I feel they can, but I am a little concerned at the prospect of Ryan Sidebottom or Matthew Hoggard batting as high as eight because tail-end runs will be a big factor too.

Sri Lanka are under pressure after losing heavily in Australia and, with an ageing side, cracks are beginning to appear in their cricket.

Let's hope England can take advantage of those and win in just about the hardest place for English cricketers to play.