The end was swift. In the first over after lunch, Shane Warne bowled Monty Panesar for his 699th Test Match wicket and claimed back the Ashes for Australia. The celebrations will go on for hours if not days as this meant a great deal to the Aussies.


http://www.thisisthemidlands.co.uk/midlands/images/blogs/its_all_over.jpg

Monty's gone and it's all over!

There is not much else to say apart from paying tribute to the England supporters who still turned up to watch the last rites in their thousands.

It is easy to be critical with hindsight and I am certainly not a negative person but this campaign has been flawed from the start. To go 3-0 down after just three matches is not acceptable. I believe the campaign was poorly planned and has been badly managed. The players are not to blame - they were clearly under prepared - and I do believe we have a team that can consistently perform at the highest level.

We must move away from the view that there is too much cricket. I have never spoken to any player yet, including most of the Worcestershire players, who would rather practice than play. You cannot expect bowlers to win Test matches against Australia if they have hardly played during the domestic season and batsmen want to be in the middle for as long as possible. This may mean a shorter career for some and the need for greater squad strength in depth but less cricket is not the answer. It is also clear that the loss of bowling coach, Troy Cooley, to Australia has been a severe loss.

Another issue that needs to be addressed is the inclusion of families on tour. This is a really tough call to make but it could be argued that team strength is built through being together as much as possible and not having to worry about domestic pressures during a Test Match, especially when overseas. It would be trite to say that this doesn't happen with most other team sports or with our armed forces abroad but surely the experience at the last football World Cup with the so called WAGS receiving more publicity than the players had to have an impact on team strength. Certainly there is no problem in having cricket families over for Christmas and New Year when touring Australia and South Africa but at other times it must be looked at again.

The Kent CCC Member and myself are off to do the 'tourist' bit in the wine region around Margaret River before moving on to Melbourne for the fourth Test Match so we will catch up with everybody there. She has also pointed out that only two other players in the history of Test Cricket have played more innings than Geraint Jones before getting their first duck - he got a pair in this match - and they were Aravinda da Silva and Clive Lloyd. This particular statistic has left me speechless.