The worry that Australia would somehow manage an incredible fightback or that even the weather would intervene to spoil England's party was thankfully misplaced as we claimed the Ashes 3-1 with all three victories won by an innings. This is far from a great Australia team but nevertheless the ruthless and professional way we have gone about three and a half of these tests is very encouraging. England have thrived under pressure with the defeat in Perth looking like an aberration that merely served to force the team to knuckle down more. This is a true team victory earned through planning and practice, where no individual is bigger than the team and all must work together for the cause. This may sound strange as long as Kevin Pieterson is in the team but the last 18 months have seen his importance fade as he was out of form and others picked up the baton. This initially started when England won their first one day trophy with the World Twenty20 title and players such as Craig Kieswetter and Eoin Morgan outshone KP in the attacking batsmen stakes to show that we were not solely reliant on him. This personality cult can sometimes hinder the team that are over reliant on the star name and try to build the team around him. It may work for a while but if he gets injuries like Flintoff did then that team can lose its way. Yes the current team have good players but crucially everybody contributed something at some point in this series with the possible exception of Paul Collingwood who was out of form with the bat but whose fielding remained as excellent as usual.
   On Collingwood's retirement from tests I wish him well and hope he continues to play in the one day format for a time yet. A cynic may suggest that he jumped before he was pushed and can now concentrate on earning money in the IPL but many sportspeople before him have never known when their time is up and it is a brave man who acknowledges that it is time to step aside before the selectors tell you. Collingwood is characterised as the doughty middle order batsmen who won't throw his wicket away and that is true but he was (and still is) more than that in that when the situation required he could score quickly and could pace an innings superbly. He reminds me of Shiv Chanderpaul during ODIs in that they seem to start slowly but once in are adept at picking the pace up as their innings progresses. Added to that his more than useful bowling with his cutters proving difficult to score off in the shorter form of the game and his quite brilliant fielding with some stunning catches in his archive and England are losing a good, honest cricketer who won't be as easy to replace than first thought.
   A quick mention too of Shane Warne's predictor. As good and accurate a bowler he was seems to be in inverse proportion to his ability to talent spot emerging cricketers. His latest "find" Michael Beer does not look as though he is about to set the world alight just yet even if he does turn out to be a dependable spinner. Warne's previous tip that England's next big star and the player they needed to get into the team from a couple of years ago was Dmitri Mascheranas who has yet to fulfill Warne's promise. How he continues to do well at poker remains a mystery.