I may have been a little harsh.

On reflection, a number of maligned players in the post below deserve to be recovered a little.

In is unfair to suggest that Hayden, Langer and Gilchrist failed to turn up. They did - just without their usual party poppers. Gilchrist kept wicket superbly. Hayden caught cripsly in the slips and Langer's average was higher than Trescothick's. I apologise to you all.

It is also a little brusque to say that Bell's performance was entirely negligible. He did make more outfield catches than any other player on either side (this excludes wickies and exclusive slip fielders like Hayden). On the issue of his batting, however, I remain intransigent. It was bloody awful. If the youthful enthusiasm and belief in the dressing room was as contagious as we are being led to believe, then we should be bottling Bell's blood, since he clearly has the immunity of an alligator. Back to the counties for you, ol' boy. Oi! Collingwood.......

I think the rest of them pretty much got what they deserved.

2 final points - Lovely to see Flintoff paraded round London drunk as a Lord, lovely to see him behave so impeccably despite his condition and lovely to see such behaviour placed in its proper context and accepted for what it was. Also, how devastating is it to hear Dennis Lillee, the most frightening fast bowler in history, predict how fiercesome our bowlers are going to be on the hard bouncy pitches in Australia next time round. Cool or what?!