Flower warns England to improve or risk losing urn to Oz in 'return Ashes'

England coach Andy Flower has warned his team to improve or risk losing the urn to Australia during the return Ashes series.

Although England won the previous Ashes series 3-0 in the summer, on foreign soil the gap between the two sides is automatically narrowed and makes retaining the urn for England far from a 'cakewalk', as many had assumed.

According to the Mirror, Flower believes that England's performance needs to go up a notch when they head to Australia for the return fixtures, saying that although they came out on the top during the summer, there are yet a number of areas England needs to improve if they want to retain the urn.

Flower further said that although to win away from home in Australian conditions would be tough for England, they have done it before and are aware of how much hard work is needed for such a victory.

The report mentioned that Flower is focused on his proposed 'boot camp' to which he is taking the squad the weekend before the team travels to Australia.

The former Zimbabwe captain was one of the 21 former Test captains, including Australia's Ian Chappell and Sri Lanka's Arjuna Ranatunga, honoured at a gala dinner for the Lord's Taverners that raised a record 104,000 pounds for their charitable work, the report added.