Elated Clarke credits turnaround to hard work

Australia's transformation over the last three months came about because the players simply got fed up with losing and decided to put in the hard work to turn their fortunes around, captain Michael Clarke said after they won the Ashes on Tuesday.

In March, Clarke was captain of an Australia team in crisis with as many off-field problems as they had on it and soon to lose their coach after a 4-0 series drubbing in India.

In August having conceded a third straight Ashes series to the English, he was in charge of a team that had played 10 Tests, lost seven, drawn two and won one in 2013.

On Tuesday, though, he was celebrating winning back the earthenware symbol of Anglo-Australian sporting rivalry with emphatic victories in the first three Tests of the current series.

"I can only put it down to hard work," he told reporters. "The way the guys have trained and prepared, that's not just batting in the nets or bowling in the nets. The guys are fitter, they're stronger.

"Mentally they're certainly as wellprepared for opposition players as possible. Then the work they're doing in the nets. It all adds up."

Clarke, who keeps to his line in news conferences as well as his bowlers did in the 150-run victory at the WACA which sealed one of the best moments of his 100-Test career, warmed to his theme.

"If you don't have success, if you're not performing as you'd like as an individual player or as a team, you get to a place where you get sick of losing, or sick of not getting runs, or not taking wickets," he added.

"You find a way to turn it around. And the only way to turn it around is through lots of hard work. Lots of dedication and lots of sacrifice and throughout this series.

"Individual players have put the team first on every occasion and that's why we sit here as winners today."

Although reluctant to single out individuals for credit, Clarke was prepared to pay tribute to the work done by a bowling unit spearheaded by Mitchell Johnson.

"The other guys have played a big part to allow Mitch to bowl the way he's bowled," Clarke said.