Ashes in the Mouth

The Ashes are lost. Now all we can hope for is to avoid the whitewash.

First, the excuses:

We lost Vaughan, our best batsman and a good captain.

We lost Simon Jones, the master of reverse swing (whatever that is).

Trescothick had 'personal problems' and lost it.

Harmison just lost it

Giles was injured.

We were playing Australia.


Second, the mistakes:

We made Flintoff captain. Like, Darren Gough and Botham before him, he's a great player and inspirational force within the team, but I doubt his tactical nous and his toughness as a leader. The last year's results should have proved this. He was the newspapers' choice.

We took a team of cripples, physically, mentally and in terms of form. We just hoped for the best from Harmison, Flintoff and Giles.

The same applies to Cook and Bell, the first a kid, the second always fragile.

Anderson and Mahmoud have never really proved themselves.

We chose the wrong wicket-keeper. All this talk about needing those who can get runs is nonsense. If the real batsmen haven't got them, it's too late for a number seven to get them, despite some notable late partnerships. One missed stumping is not cancelled out by 50 runs - and that assumes you're going to get them, which we didn't.

No-one told Pietersen to stop being an arrogant prima donna and play for the team for a change. (I accept that he seems to have learned by the third test, but his dismissal in the first innings was typical).

We let Vaughan hang around on the fringes, undermining Flintoff.

We didn't play anything like enough proper games in Australia to prepare. those two-day games, with 12 players, were a joke.

We were playing Australia.

Third, other points:

The Panesar/Giles thing was just got up by the press, because Monty is a 'character'. The editor of the Daily Mail is no more qualified to select the England team than the Radio 5 reporters. Monty did very well when he was chosen, but he would not have saved the first two tests, nor did he save the third.

I do not blame the coach, Fletcher. Not entirely. We won the Ashes under him, the culmination of a long process of improvement owed to him.

I blame the players. We got ourselves into winning positions, twice, and the batsmen threw it away. What makes it worse is that they showed that they could bat with grit and determination when they set their minds to it.

We were not motivated enough, we were not tough or hard or hungry or pure mad-dog mean enough. We don't love the Ashes enough.

We were playing Australia.