Beating New Zealand will unite England cricket fans: Broad

London, May 19 (IANS) England pace bowler Stuart Broad says beating New Zealand in the upcoming two-match Test series is the only way to get his country to unite behind the troubled cricket team.

A World Cup disaster followed by a Test loss in the drawn series with the West Indies, the subsequent sacking of coach Peter Moores and the never ending debate about the worthiness of Kevin Pietersen have put the spotlight on the England team for all the wrong reasons, reports stuff.co.nz.

Broad believes the only way to rid the side of its baggage is to start winning again. That will be vital against the Black caps, especially with a high-profile Ashes series against Australia to follow.

"It's vital to win this series against New Zealand. It's a good opportunity going into the first Test for us to concentrate on the actual cricket, how we are going to up our game, get results and how we are going to up our love for cricket as a country," the 28-year-old right-arm pacer said on Tuesday.

"I feel like now is the time as a team that we need to go 'cricket, cricket, cricket' because when we do that, that is generally when we get some good results.

"We've got to win games. Sport is that sort of world. If you're losing you deserve to get that sort of crap. If you're winning you generally get less crap and people enjoy watching you more.

"As players all we can do is take our catches, take our wickets and score runs. And if we win games, people will want to watch us."