Exactly a month before the start of the World Cup, the same team that arrived in Australia ranked eighth and last out of the world's top nations have suddenly emerged as surprise contenders to take the trophy.
This is casting against type: at previous World Cups, England have either been nearly-men or no-hopers. But this result should have re-invigorated their whole team, and has certainly won over the bookies. Many are now quoting them level with South Africa and West Indies at 13/2.
Australia remain out in front, on 13/8, but their aura has dimmed over the past 10 days. The last time they lost three consecutive meaningful matches to any opponent was six years ago, when New Zealand produced a similar upset in what was then known as the VB Series. - Simon Briggs, The Telegraph
One of the reasons England won in Sydney, and entitled themselves to leave with some rescued pride a country which had learnt to treat them with a terrible scorn, was that finally they had reminded Ricky Ponting and his team that they were indeed capable of making a fight of it, that what happened in England a year and a half ago was not a freak of nature but something built on passion and authentic talent.
For this England do indeed deserve congratulations, for the performance of a Collingwood and a Flintoff and a Plunkett when the pressure came one last time, and for the whole team's renovated spirit.
Inevitably, the position of the coach Duncan Fletcher has been secured as the team go into the World Cup - and maybe beyond. But does that invalidate the criticism that came to him when Monty Panesar was left out of the early Ashes action, when Geraint Jones was allowed to run down his Test career so abjectly, and England underperformed so grotesquely? And does anything that happened in Sydney deflect from the basic fact that the Ashes tour remains an unmitigated disaster?
No, it doesn't. What it says, mostly, is that England's cricketers were not as hopeless as they portrayed themselves for so long. What has happened now is that they have re-created a standard for themselves and this, you have to say, is the main reason for celebration today. - James Lawton, The Independent
Flintoff may not yet have the polished leadership skills of Michael Vaughan or Nasser Hussain but that does not mean he is incompetent. Nor has he quite the matches under his belt that those two have. But it seems evident that he is getting more confident and adept. His one-day form does not appear to have suffered under the burden either. So this win is Flintoff's triumph more than anything.
It muddies the water, though, for there, hovering in the foreground, is Vaughan, official captain once more and, so assumption has it, ready to take the side to the World Cup. Personally I don't find the evidence for his inclusion overwhelming at present, not because his captaincy is short of the mark - it very obviously is up to it - although overall his one-day track record in this regard looks pretty mediocre.
But he has never come to terms with the game as a batsman, while his fitness, after more than a year out of the international game, remains questionable. To get this straight, the England selectors, on Wednesday, will almost certainly announce the choice of a fellow with an extremely modest record in one-day matches given the quality of his Test batting, who has not been able to demonstrate that his knee, the cause of his long-term absence, can survive the rigours of an intensive competition. - Mike Selvey, The Guardian
Now for some realism. In one-day terms, the only tournament to have anything like the same importance as a leading Test series is the World Cup and for England to have their best chance of maintaining their recent momentum when they start their campaign in the Caribbean, against New Zealand on March 16, Michael Vaughan has to be restored as captain when the team is announced on Wednesday.
Vaughan has had no personal success since he lifted the Ashes urn in September 2005. He has fought a courageous, often lonely, battle for fitness since a fourth knee operation last June. He has trained for countless hours in the interests of his cricketing and financial future and there have been times when it seemed contrary to the cause of Flintoff and the rest of the team.
From the moment that he was able fully to get involved, however, Vaughan's influence on a bemused and battered team was evident. At last there was some honest admission of the mistakes that were made - those well-aired failures of selection, underpreparation and tactical nous at crucial moments. At last there was a firm hand on the tiller. - Christopher Martin-Jenkins, The Times
AuthorTopic: And this is what The English Papers Had To Say (Read 433 times)
August 19, 2006, 01:39:40 AM