Some Ashes Thoughts

No blogs since my pre-Ashes prediction mostly through laziness and playing Gran Turismo 5 but with plenty of time at this time of year I really should make an effort and cobble some words together on how the series has gone.

First off congratulations to England and one man in particular, not Kevin Pietersen but Andy Flower. I had my reservations when he took charge but the manner in which he has turned a group of decent individuals into a very good team deserves the highest praise.

When Flower took charge of that first tour he did so with a squad not of his choosing and yet in it was nine of the eleven starters in Brisbane, so his reign has been more evolution rather than revolution at least in terms of personnel. Incidentally, one of two that weren't on that tour was Jonathan Trott, instead he was the outstanding player on the A team tour of New Zealand, he followed it by averaging 90 in the English season and his subsequent Oval selection was only a 'shock' to lazy short-sighted hacks.

The point is there hasn't been any inspired left field selections from Andy Flower, a la Duncan Fletcher and Marcus Trescothick, instead he's stuck to his main duty and concentrated on coaching. I still believe the positive series results against Australia (09) and South Africa (09/10) came against the grain but as Eisenhower said 'I would rather have a lucky general than a smart general'.