Welcoming Home The Ashes

What a fabulous climax yesterday to the Ashes Summer, when on Day 4 of the Oval Test, Australia's hopes of clinging on to the famous urn were finally dashed. It would be entirely unfair to say, in traditional style, "that the better team won" - because in terms of both raw talent, and performance statistics, the better team were unable to salvage the draw they needed to retain the coveted trophy which they so overwhelmingly won two years ago at home in Australia. Somehow England were able, with Strauss and Trott's accumulation of runs, and Broad's devastating first-innings bowling, to win the final test by a stunning 197-run margin.

The series itself has been something of a roller-coaster, both teams suffering from wild fits of erratic inconsistency, with both bat and ball. This is probably the key difference that will be noted in the inevitable comparisons with the summer of 2005 series, when both teams performed consistently well and the Ashes were "won". In 2009, while there were moments of heroic performance that turned the tide for one side or the other - there is a greater sense that this year the Ashes were "lost" - by heroic failures. Neither side played consistently at the top of their game for the series, and Australia was almost as poor at Lord's as England were lamentable at Headingly, only a few weeks later. Some statistician somewhere will work out how many of the woeful batting collapses we have seen from both sides this summer have been caused by batsmen being unable to leave balls wide of the off-stump, a problem no-doubt exacerbated by the prevalence of the 20-20 form of the game.

But despite that, there were some notable performances. Anderson and Panesar's battling defiance of the Australian attack on the last day at Cardiff, restored English hopes - after the Aussies had so comprehensively demolished their bowling attack in the opening match. Flintoff's spell of brutal fast-bowling at Lord's was as compelling as it was destructive, and as memorable as Strauss' big hundred. Headingly was a complete disaster for England who lost by a innings and oh....... hundreds and hundreds of runs - and was entirely devoid of hope except for the curious rejuvenation of Stuart Broad. Broad had begun the series as the new ball bowler (perhaps somewhat surprisingly), but by mid-series he was near the bottom of the pecking-order, Strauss not handing him the ball until Anderson, Flintoff, Onions and sometimes even Swann had all had a go. Yet, his series turned around in Leeds, with 6-91 with the ball, and a fine-looking 61 with the bat. Although Australia levelled the series here, setting up this week's thrilling finale, it also appears to have been the match preparation that England's man-of-the-match at The Oval required to bring his obvious potential to fruition. He ends up leading the bowling stats for the series, and with a batting average higher that Cook, Bopara, Bell, Prior and Collingwood - and mid-series suggestions of his exclusion from the team put to one side.

Flintoff's occasional bursts of headline-grabbing brilliance have masked a fairly ordinary series for the big-man, and an equally ordinary test finale, save for the spectacular, timely and brilliant run out of Ricky Ponting, whose partnership with the equally brilliant Mike Hussey threatened at one stage to wreck England's party. England will not miss Flintoff's frequent ludicrous dismissals at the crease, the constant worries over his fitness, and his career statistics do show plenty of bad games alongside the good ones. But they will miss some of the extraordinary moments of inspiration he has provided for his team, sometimes at critical moments. His second innings bowling at Lords was for a few short, match-changing overs, brilliant, and his final moment of glory, in hurling Ponting's stumps down from mid-on was such a typical Flintoff moment of sporting brilliance and showbiz, that it brought the whole ground (and countless people around the country) to its feet.

What a shame then, that the ECB have sold all the broadcasting rights to Murdoch's media empire. The reason that the 2005 Ashes was a national event, wasn't just the better play that year, but the widespread accessibility when home tests were kept on the reserved list of sporting events to be kept on terrestrial television. Murdoch's millions might filter down to club level with the odd sightscreen here, and the odd new net there, or even a coach trained to teach youngsters the game somewhere in Merthr Tidfyll; but the fact is that unless kids can readily see their heroes in action, demand for these facilities will be gone within a generation.

The second shame is that this great sporting spectacle has brought out the lunatic-fringe of the SNP, demanding that what media coverage there has been be axed in Scotland, because cricket is not a Scottish sport! This is ill-conceived knee-jerk populism of the silliest kind. For a start, cricket in Scotland is alive and well, played by thousands every week, and with significantly higher participation than Rugby that er... "Scottish" sport. That's why during the 2005 Ashes series, the live coverage gained higher viewing percentages in Scotland than in England! That the team is called "England" (but has regularly featured Scots and Welshmen) is of course a problem, but one which allows Scots to play at the very highest level under an England banner, or enter a separate Scottish team in the world cup - so one which Scottish cricketers are hardly motivated to campaign to change.

The next job for the England selectors is to assess the series and work out who will be in a position to take the team forward from here. Vaughan's team of 2005 did little after their great series, and there are some series selection issues to work through from here on.

If we to classify the players in terms of their likely inclusion in the next squad as 'certain', 'query' and 'drop', the following would be my assessment.

Certain

Strauss: the linchpin of the batting line up

Trott: a very impressive debut

Pietersen: brilliant but erratic

Broad: has proved himself in the last 2 games

Anderson: can he do enough when the ball doesn't swing?

Prior: hugely improved keeper, adds useful runs

Swann: England's best spinning option, useful batsman

Query

Onions: 10 wickets in three tests, wasn't enough to keep his place

Cook: consistently out cheaply fishing outside off-stump

Bell: Unreliable, never looks really 'in'

Collingwood: Has had a disastrous summer, averages lower than the bowlers

Harmison: Three quick wickets, might not be enough

Drop

Bopara: His centuries again the Windies don't look like being repeated

Panesar: He can't elevate his bowling to match his enthusiasm.

All that however, can wait for another day. Today, there is plenty to celebrate. Despite the best efforts of the likes of Ponting, Siddle, Hilfenhaus, Hussey, North and Johnson - we have the Ashes back. And that's fantastic!