England's Torture Is Finally Over
After a couple of months down under, England's abysmal Ashes tour in Australia is over, having been whitewashed in a series that never looked close. If it were Zimbabwe or Bangladesh playing against Australia, you'd expect that scoreline, but given that England are ranked second in the world Test rankings, this is an awful result. In the Test series, Australia overall beat England by one innings, 16 wickets and 582 runs - an awful result by any team's standards. However, whilst it is true to say that England were not at full strength - missing Marcus Trescothick, Michael Vaughan and Simon Jones, it is equally true that the Australian team was the only team that ever looked like winning. The Australians were the only team that looked like they had the desire firing them on. They learned the lessons of losing in the 2005 Ashes series. Now England need to do the same.
It is also sad to now realise that we have now lost 4 great Australian players - Damien Martyn, Justin Langer, Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne. They will all be missed. All could have carried on had the wished and the game will not be the same without them. However, as Warne will still be playing for Lancashire, I will make sure I try my hardest to go to a Hampshire game this year, though probably not at the Rose Bowl. He is an exceptional talent with the ball - and he can knock it around the park fairly well too!
For England, the inquest must start. The best place to start is with Australia themselves - how did Australia respond to their own Ashes loss? Their response had paid huge dividends even before the Ashes began in November, so perhaps there is something to learn in their response to losing.
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