The better side won

As Nasser Hussain was about to depart from Heathrow on what turned out to be this ill-fated Ashes tour, he said that he genuinely believed his side stood a chance of competing with the Australians. But he did qualify that optimism with a couple of phrases that might now haunt him. "For us to beat Australia a few things have to go right off the field," he said. "If we can get the bowlers fit I think we've got a really good chance against Australia, the best chance against them for a long time."

Quite obviously, things did not go right off the field - or on it, come to that - and they failed to get the bowlers fit. He summed it up at the end of the Perth Test when the Ashes had been conceded once again. "We let everyone down, we were embarrassingly poor. We've not performed really and we have just been left beaten, battered and bruised by this. We have been carrying a lot of injuries but we were just not good enough."

No sooner had the Test in Perth finished than the recriminations and the post-mortems began. The wailing and gnashing of teeth will doubtless continue for some time to come. No one has argued with Hussain's assessment about the impact of the injuries, nor that his side was not good enough.

No doubt the selectors had in mind an attack in Perth consisting of Darren Gough, Andrew Caddick, Simon Jones, Andrew Flintoff and Ashley Giles. None of them were fit enough to start the match and one replacement, Chris Silverwood, lasted only four overs before he pulled up lame. Another, Alex Tudor, finished up in hospital, albeit with a batting injury. It is easy to appreciate just how one-sided this contest was always going to be.

The chairman of the England and Wales cricket board, Lord MacLaurin, highlighted one problem when he commented on the time it has taken Flintoff to return to fitness. "I think Flintoff was doing things in his recuperation that he probably shouldn`t have," MacLaurin said. "Professional footballers are back playing within four or five weeks. He had his operation way back in summer and should really have been fit by now."

That begs the question whether the authorities did all they could to ensure the quickest possible return for Flintoff. His former colleague at Lancashire, Mike Atherton, suggested otherwise in an article in the Sunday Telegraph. He wrote: "For some time I have felt that the medical side of England's cricket is more amateurish than it might be, lagging behind the increasingly professional set-up as a whole."

Flintoff was in pain during the second Test against India at Trent Bridge. However, he was persuaded that he could put off the operation until after the Headingley Test and still be fit for the start of the Ashes campaign. To see how much blame he should shoulder for the fact that he did not regain fitness at the same rate as a professional footballer, we should return to Atherton's account of his recovery programme.

"For the first few days he was given some gentle rehabilitation exercises, but there was little communication between the England and Wales Cricket Board and the player, who, after the initial exercises, had no idea of the more strict, day-to-day rehabilitation he should have been undertaking. In the following fortnight Flintoff saw the ECB medical staff only once, during the last Test at The Oval, to have his stitches removed.

"At the end of the season, Dean Conway, the England physiotherapist, rang Lancashire to ask them to take charge of Flintoff's rehabilitation. Lancashire were playing at Canterbury and Taunton and Flintoff remained in Manchester, when his rehabilitation finally got under way. After six days he was taken out of Lancashire's care and sent to Lilleshall for two and a half weeks. Initially he was told that he was not to be booked in and he would be expected to drive there and back each day, although eventually common sense prevailed and a room was found. From this point until arriving in Perth, Flintoff did not see anybody from the ECB."

There is no point in apportioning blame. Flintoff wanted to get fit. Conway is a first-class physiotherapist and would have done all in his power to help him. Lancashire, like England, would have wanted the player to make the best possible recovery. It was the system that failed to provide adequate back up - a situation that has hopefully been rectified by the appointment of Dr Peter Gregory as the ECB's first chief medical officer.

Duncan Fletcher, England's widely-admired coach, has his own thoughts on why it all went wrong. "They are a good experienced side and they've played well against other Test countries as well, but to some degree we didn't play as well as we could have and it's difficult to pinpoint why that is, but we didn't bat well under pressure.

"The only way you find players who can handle pressure is to expose them to that sort of intensity and that sort of bowler coming at you on a regular basis, but it's a bit of a Catch 22 situation - if you're going to improve your game you have to play at a higher level to do that. But if they do play more at that level they will learn more how to handle it. It's difficult to reproduce that but the guys have to learn and have the character to go in there and handle it."

Fletcher and Hussain have combined to form an outstanding management team for the England side. That makes it all the more surprising and disappointing that some critics sharpened their knives ready to implant them between the captain's shoulder blades at the first opportunity.

Hussain took over an England team that was at the bottom of the (then unofficial) Test table. Now England have reached a stage at which they can compete with any other Test-playing country - with the one notable exception, Australia.

The ex-captains who have left the heat of battle for the warmth of the commentary box might like to compare that achievement with some of their own records. Hussain has led England in 40 Tests, winning 14 and drawing 12. One of his most vocal critics, Ian Botham, lasted as captain for only 12 matches during which time his record read: lost four and drew eight. The `matches won' column was superfluous.

It seems extraordinary that the man hailed as the best England captain since Mike Brearley - and an infinitely better batsman - a short while ago is suddenly having to justify his position. Even the best captains make mistakes. Hussain will be the first to admit his, but who is there to replace him? And where are all these youngsters clamouring for a place in the side by sheer weight of runs and wickets?

On this tour, England have been decimated by injuries to key personnel. In no way have they fulfilled potential. Yet the fact remains that if England had been performing at the very top of their game with a full hand of fit players, Australia are still good enough to beat them over a five-match series.

There is a deep-rooted assumption in England that their sporting teams have a predestined right to be successful. Years ago that might have been the case, but not now. Furthermore, English sporting structures do not lend themselves to the production of excellence. Society is not tough enough to produce world-beaters. Those who emerge from a soft culture do so because they are exceptions to the general rule.

It almost appears slightly ungentlemanly to strive to win. At least, being seen to strive for success is not quite the done thing in polite society. It is against that backdrop that cricket and other sports are trying to become fully professional and successful.

Unlike Australia, sport is not considered to be a serious matter in England. It is a pastime; a recreation. Players go out to have a good game. A good game in Australia is one that you win. If you do not go out to win, there is no point in keeping the score.

It was not long ago that certain left-wing education authorities had the policy of banning competitive sport in schools. Hardly a blueprint for the production of champions. Not that there is the same amount of cricket played in schools as there was.

A recent survey of 1,300 schoolchildren revealed that only 3% said that cricket was the sport they play most at school, while 23% are playing the game outside school hours. A further 13% are having coaching outside school and 12% are members of cricket clubs.

It is encouraging that interest in the game is present, but it is vital that schools become the natural home of the game in summer once again if cricket is to prosper in England. And it is no good looking at the English Schools Cricket Association to make any difference. That organisation still maintains its independence from the ECB despite the difficulty in justifying its existence. If it were to shut up shop tomorrow, the most significant consequence might be that a few former schoolmasters would have to hand in their blazers.

Steps have been taken to provide an infrastructure for the game and to move more towards an Australian system. The Academy is up and running. Central contracts have been introduced. The coaching system is being overhauled. Whether this Australian seed will flourish in an English climate remains to be seen.

Lord MacLaurin recognises that there can be instant cure for England's ills. "You can`t suddenly wave a magic wand and become best in the world. What you do is put down some foundations for the future, which is what we have done.

"The Australian side has been going through their Academy, which teaches them the skills of the game and the mental capability to play at the highest level.

"I can understand the reaction by cricket followers about the results in Australia but let us not forget they have just beaten South African and Pakistan out of sight and we have been very, very unfortunate with injuries and have not played our best side.

"We have to be patient. There is no knee-jerk reaction. We have put everything in place for the future and we have just got to see it through now. Our mission statement says we need to be best in the world by 2007 and it is going to take that time."

He might have added the words "at least" but did not do so. It is difficult to imagine English cricket hauling itself up to the level currently occupied by Australia in four short years when there are generations of prejudice and stagnation to be stripped away. Furthermore, if England do reach that lofty elevation, they will find that the Australians have moved on - upwards.

That does not mean that English cricket should not strive with every sinew to go forward. Lord MacLaurin, Duncan Fletcher, Nasser Hussain and many others have done their best and they have got the rusty old wheels turning. The momentum must not be derailed by this bad series.

In the meantime, there is another sporting philosophy from the Victorian era that should be borne in mind. "May the best side win," was the exhortation. In this case, the best side did win. England might have been steadily climbing upwards, but Australia deserve the crowning title as the best side in the world and one of the best in the history of cricket. There is no disgrace in losing to them and every reason to go on trying to emulate them.