After the match, captains and commentators alike talked about a fantastic contest. And it did contain some memorable moments, individual triumphs that told of a human journey reaching its destination. Certainly the batting was impressive and a hat-trick was taken, yet to call the match exciting was to stretch a point. Ricky Ponting described it as "tremendous" while Andrew Strauss spoke about a "great match". Gentlemen, with respect, that is a delusion, writes Peter Roebuck in the Sydney Morning Herald.

Part of the problem lies with quality of the bowlers and that is beyond cricket's immediate control. However, the emphasis on ensuring that matches last five days is a mistake. Lively first-day tracks are essential.

Obviously it is a bit early to start worrying about a deadening series. But the warning signs cannot be missed. This was not a great Test. Ultimately it was a dud.

I still think both captains will walk away from Brisbane wondering: "How are we going to take 20 wickets? says Shane Warne in the Telegraph. Both bowling attacks are a concern but England will clearly take more out of this match than Australia. The only bowler to take a second innings wicket for Australia was a part-timer. Horrible.

This is the biggest test of Ricky Ponting's leadership of men. It is fine to dissect the tactical side of his captaincy but this is now about something different. It is about picking up his players after a hammering in the field. It is a hard one for any captain but he has to stand up and be counted and try to inspire his team.

Has Australian cricket really fallen this far? Is the national team really this bad? asks Malcolm Conn in the Australian.

Never before have the top three England batsmen scored centuries against Australia in the same innings. Not since that last triumphant series under Mike Gatting in 1986-87 had any three Englishmen scored a hundred in the same innings. It also happened on the 1985 Ashes tour, the only two occasions since World War II. So are we really back to those dark ages?

To endure a hat-trick and a triple-century partnership and still finish the Test with a few men huddled around the Australian batsmen, snarling away without looking too silly, suggests the tourists finished in the psychological ascendancy, says Vic Marks in the Guardian. But the cricket itself has offered more concrete confirmation that England will head for Adelaide in a more cheerful frame of mind.

In the Courier Mail, Robert Craddock tells of a joke doing the rounds in the press box at the Gabba and makes ten observations from the happenings in Brisbane.

When Australia were toiling in the field a twitter message whistled around the Gabba press box revealing the RSPCA had been called to the ground. The Royal Society of Prevention of Cruelty to Australians had been called in to investigate whether what was happening to Ricky Ponting's side was inhumane.

Faith is important, but must not be allowed to blind selectors: for Friday's second Test in Adelaide, Johnson must yield to Doug Bollinger or Ryan Harris. For Marcus North to play out the series, he must make runs in his country's time of need, not just his own, writes Greg Baum in the Sydney Morning Herald.

The worry, not just for the natives, is that something indeed may have snapped in one of the greatest sports traditions the world has ever seen, writes James Lawton in the Independent.

The old furies of Australian cricket were, after all, built on the assumption that there would always be another Warne or Ponting or McGrath impatient to make their way into the hearts of the nation. There was not much evidence of such burgeoning authority and confidence these last few days. Maybe it is just a pause in the production line – and perhaps something will happen in Adelaide these next few days ... The danger is that when a certain magic disappears it is not so easy to retrieve. Australian cricket has lost one superb generation and, for the moment at least, it is not so easy to banish the fear it might just have been the last.

With the ball, England, as a unit, certainly shaded the contest, Peter Siddle's hat-trick notwithstanding, writes Mike Selvey in the Guardian. Jimmy Anderson produced one of his finest spells with the second new ball, and, unproductive as it was, appeared a class above any other seamer in the game.

Sri Lanka Cricket’s defence that the Premadasa Stadium, which is undergoing extensive renovation, was used for the second Test against the West Indies to allow the Sri Lanka players to test the pitch before the World Cup makes no sense because you can’t judge how a pitch will play in ODIs based on a Test, Trevor Chesterfield writes in the Island.

Despite the rain and what play there was available, the pitch said nothing. "You cannot gauge what a one-day match is going to be like from a Test match," Sangakkara said. “We have to see how the pitch behaves under lights. How it will play as more and more matches are played. How it behaves with the white ball.” It is one thing to restructure a playing surface, but without a genuine pre-Test trial with games being played, it is useless.

In the same paper, Rex Clementine interviews Kumar Sangakkara about his memories of the Asgiriya Stadium, which has been replaced as Kandy’s Test venue by the new Pallekele stadium, which will host the third Test against the West Indies.

Sri Lanka captain Kumar Sangakkara, an old boy of Trinity College, grew up playing his cricket at Asgiriya and regretted not having the chance of playing international cricket at his school ground in the future. "I love playing at Asgiriya. It is a fantastic cricket wicket and it has produced great results. If you bat first you lose four or five wickets by lunch and then it settles down and it starts turning," Sangakkara who scored a match winning 152 in the last Test played here said.

While the first Test at Brisbane fizzled out into a tame draw with batsmen from both sides cashing in, there can be no doubting the statement of intent set out by England's trio of second-innings centurions and this was reflected in the English press. Vic Marks put forward a compelling case for the psychological points scored by the visitors in The Guardian.

To endure a hat-trick, a triple century partnership and still finish the Test with a few men huddled around the Australian batsmen, snarling away without looking too silly, suggests that the tourists finished with the psychological ascendancy. But the cricket itself has offered more concrete confirmation that England will head for Adelaide in a more cheerful frame of mind.

After Australia had endured a long day in the field on Sunday, Nasser Hussain suggested in The Daily Mail that, despite Peter Siddle's first-innings hat-trick, the first Test offered a harsh reality check to Ricky Ponting about the quality of his bowling attack.

For years the Aussies lectured us about the special powers of the baggy green, but my feeling was always that any special powers they had were more to do with Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath. Would Australia's performance with the ball here on day four have been any different if Steve Waugh or Mark Taylor had been in charge? I don't think so. And the reason - regardless of the outcome of this game - is that this attack lack that extra bit of magic when the pitch is flat and the ball is old.

In The Telegraph, Steve James suggested that Australia would be a damaged side after enduring "two days of absolute humiliation in the field", while in the same newspaper Alan Tyers took the opportunity to offer a few tongue-in-cheek answers to the question 'What's wrong with Mitchell Johnson?'

Did not want to take wickets and hasten the end of the match; as paid by the day and saving up for new Xbox.
Did not want to steal limelight from team's major bowling threat, Marcus North.
New tattoo causing great pain: both physical (done by Shane Watson with penknife and linseed oil) and emotional (authentic Aboriginal message does not mean “Love And Harmony”; in fact translates as “Wayward dingo must be killed”)

The Australian papers are filled with questions over Johnson’s place in the Test side. In the Daily Telegraph, Peter Badel says it is up to Ricky Ponting to do what he did with Andrew Symonds and Marcus North and revitalise his career.

Buoyed by Ponting's support, Symonds helped Australia win the 2003 World Cup. He backed Marcus North to the hilt on the eve of the New Zealand tour in March, spending hours with him in the nets and publicly declaring his spot was safe. North responded with the century that kept alive his Test career. Now Ponting shapes as the man who must help revitalise Johnson, the boom-or-bust quick who is no longer the automatic selection he appeared after terrorising South Africa two summers ago.

Peter Roebuck’s verdict after the first Test is that Ponting’s hopes of winning the Ashes are fading. Australia’s worst fears and England's highest hopes have been confirmed, he writes in the Sydney Morning Herald

England's rally at the Gabba was as telling as Australia's inability to press home its advantage. Over the years this ground has taken no prisoners. Australia has been able to impose itself on all comers. Now England, or at any rate a team bearing that name, can leave Brisbane not only intact but with conviction.

Andrew Strauss’ innings is heralded as one of “cricketing brilliance and tough-guy belligerence” by Simon Barnes in the Australian

There are few people in world sport more exposed than an England cricket captain in Australia. Strauss knew this when he went out to bat in the first innings. He wanted to show Australia that he was a damn good cricketer. He also wanted to show them that he was hard as bloody nails as well. Tough, unyielding - all the things that England cricketers are supposed not to be.

Bangladesh's gold medal performance with a second-string cricket team in the Asian Games is a sign that the country is moving from being a cricket-loving nation to a cricketing one, according to the Daily Star

Though India did not enter a team, the competition nonetheless was rather broad based with nine teams participating. It may have been anything but world standard, still emerging at the top of the table took considerable grit and skill. We think, it is yet another step towards acquiring consistency of performance and falling into a winning groove which have so long deluded us.

In the New Zealand Herald, Mark Richardson says the proximity of the World Cup makes one-day form a priority for New Zealand and the series in India is an opportunity to erase the memory of the loss to Bangladesh

I'll always argue test cricket is more important than any other form but with a World Cup on the subcontinent next year our ODI form must be the priority. Two chances for development have so far been squandered. In the tri-series against Sri Lanka and India, pitch and weather conditions were very unsubcontinent-like and then in Bangladesh... well, let's not go there.

In the Sunday Telegraph, Scyld Berry hails Jimmy Anderson’s second new-ball spell to Michael Hussey on Saturday as “the best wicketless spell in Australia in recent times.”

When Hussey had added one quick single, to reach 82, Aleem Dar gave him out leg-before to Anderson. Hussey immediately called for the replay and won a reprieve. Channel Nine used to use HawkEye, as Sky do in England, but switched to a New Zealand-made system called Virtual Eye. It would be interesting to know if HawkEye would also have decided the centre of the ball had landed outside leg stump. Anderson persevered. He beat Hussey past his inside edge and outside edge. He beat Hussey when he defended and attacked.

Graeme Swann may have been battered by Michael Hussey, but he regained some of his confident swagger by the end of the third day, James Lawton writes in the Independent on Sunday

Swann's bowling survived the ravages of "Mr Cricket", a fact confirmed by the excellent delivery which forced Marcus North, such an obdurate figure at times in the last Ashes series, to nudge a catch into the slips. That brought some of the old hauteur back to Swann – and also a rare burst of unstinted praise from maybe the most acerbic of all critics of English cricket, Geoffrey Boycott. He declared: "Graeme Swann has had so much success in Test cricket and not many starts like the one he has had here. When the Australians, and particularly Hussey, attacked him it was a bit of a crisis for both Swann and England – but I thought he came through it very well indeed."

The ‘ashes’ are actually the remnants of a burnt veil and not a burnt bail, Brian Viner discovers from former England captain Ivo Bligh’s daughter-in-law and grandson in the Independent on Sunday. Bligh, on England’s tour of Australia in 1882, received the urn from a woman named Florence Morphy – who he later married - as a joke as he had said he had come to Australia to take back ‘the ashes of English cricket’.

Florence was the present Lord Darnley's grandmother, and she later told his mother, her daughter-in-law, that it had been a veil, easily enough mistaken for the word "bail", that she and her friend Lady Clarke burnt that day. As for the venerable urn itself, Lord Darnley thinks it was a scent bottle, probably taken from Janet Clarke's dressing table. All of which sounds to me like a much likelier story than the many variations that have circulated through the decades, and in Lord Darnley's study on a cold Herefordshire morning it carried proper authoritative weight.

With the English papers abuzz with stories from the Ashes, Simon Heffer takes the opportunity to reflect on the aesthetics of cricket. Commercialism has stained the international game and, today, the only real cricket you'll see in England is played on village greens and school fields, he writes in the Sunday Telegraph

The curse of money has led to the very appearance of the players changing. They no longer wear flannels and cotton shirts on which the sleeves can be rolled up and down: they are in pyjamas (coloured pyjamas for one-day matches) saturated with the logos of their various sponsors, and with ubiquitous sponsors' baseball caps for the mandatory post-match over-the-moon/sick-as-a-parrot interview imported from soccer (alongside the numbers on the back of the shirts in most forms of the game).

The Brisbane Times, unsurprisingly, focussed on Mike Hussey and Brad Haddin's record-breaking partnership, with Jamie Pandaram suggesting that Australia will be "determined to finish off the wounded Poms".

Hussey, 35, celebrated his 12th Test century with a highly-charged display of emotion, having been under pressure for some time to hold his place in the middle order. Haddin was more blase´, smashing Graeme Swann back over his head for six to reach his third Test century.

Peter Roebuck chose to focus on Haddin's knock in the Sydney Morning Herald, arguing that the wicketkeeper's cautious approach in this innings was the vital element.

Throughout, Haddin was as still as a statue and as patient as a farmer. Previously he had impressed as an excellent straight driver and a dangerous but sporadically inconsistent scorer. He did not become a great player overnight but he did emerge as a proper batsman. Certainly he thought along those lines, establishing himself at the crease, building his innings and gradually widening his range of shots. In that regard it was a classical display. It was the most measured innings of his career.

In the Guardian, David Hopps urged James Anderson to put the disappointment of the third day behind him in order to be ready for sterner challenges to come on England's tour.

By rights, when Australia's late wickets suddenly fell, they should have fallen upon Jimmy Anderson, who can rarely have bowled better in a Test outside England, or with such ill luck. But it was perhaps timely that they fell to Steve Finn, the baby of the England attack, the bowler who might have found the experience hardest to withstand. Finn's six for 125 when compared to the figures of Anderson and Finn was a statistical absurdity, but when he took his fifth wicket, Anderson's congratulations were among the warmest.

In the Daily Telegraph, Simon Briggs told the story of how Reg Dickason, England's security officer, may well have saved Andy Flower's life after prompting the England coach to go to a skin clinic for a malignant melanoma.

Andy Flower owes his life to Reg Dickason, the security officer who took him to a skin clinic in Brisbane this week, according to the man who diagnosed the England coach’s malignant melanoma. Dr Shobhan Manoharan believes that the cancerous growth just beneath Flower’s right eye had been developing at some speed, and would have caused potentially fatal complications within months.

Afghanistan’s progress in cricket has been remarkable considering there is only one ground with a turf pitch in the country, Rizwan Ali of the Associated Press reports. Mohammad Nabi, the Afghanistan allrounder, said he hopes Afghanistan’s silver medal in cricket in the Asian Games encourages the government to build facilities for cricket.

“I am happy with today’s silver. It means a lot to all our people back home, who are badly affected with the war,” Nabi said. “Even though we lost the gold today, this silver medal will give enough inspiration to our administrators to start building playing facilities so that more and more young players could be attracted toward this game.”

Afghanistan has never hosted an international match. It has only one ground with a proper turf pitch in Kabul, but there are some concrete pitches in Jalalabad. According to coach Rashid Latif, a former international cricketer from Pakistan, the cities of Khost, Kunar, Kabul and Jalalabad attract thousands of players. But there are no proper, established clubs due to a lack of facilities.

India's decision not to field a cricket team in the Asian Games is not in keeping with the campaign to have T20 cricket included as an Olympic sport and has cast Indian cricket in an unsporting light, says the Indian Express

The BCCI refused to entertain the possibility of sending a team to Guangzhou, citing the international calendar. It’s an argument rubbished by other teams in the fray at the Asian Games, and there is enough suspicion that the decision drew from a resistance to the anti-doping whereabouts clause. Whether that be the case or not, the board owes a more responsive explanation to these questions. Why did they not field an India A side, or even an under-21 side? How does this disdain for a possible Asian Games medal square with the larger campaign to have T20 included as an Olympic sport?

The momentum in the first Test at Brisbane swung back and forth between England and Australia in enthralling fashion on day two, and Michael Hussey - whose battling 81 helped Australia out of difficuly - featured heavily in the media dissection of the second day. In the Guardian, Vic Marks suggested Hussey was clearly the victor in his first tussle of the series with Graeme Swann - who was his team-mate at Northamptonshire until some six years ago.

England's off-spinner no longer looked serene. We could sense that Swann, who has glided effortlessly through the last year, was now paddling furiously and only just beneath the surface. Hussey's aggression was serving a dual purpose. At a stroke he was resuscitating his own career, but he was also threatening the received wisdom. England's joker was being well and truly trumped.

Peter Roebuck suggested in the Sydney Morning Herald Hussey's success had come from a change in his mindset, remarking upon the difference between his approach and Ricky Ponting and Michael Clarke's tentative prodding.

At first it might seem odd to include Mike Hussey among those with little to lose. After all he has been under severe scrutiny for a year. Eventually, though, the time comes to stop sandbagging. Clearly, Hussey had reached that conclusion. Perhaps his last-gasp hundred for Western Australia at the MCG was the turning point. A duck in the first dig proved that crabbing was not working.

Similarly, Jamie Pandaram argued in the Age that Hussey's knock proved the difference between to very evenly-matched sides.

ONE week ago Michael Hussey was one of about 20 people in the country who believed he should be in the Test side. Yesterday he convinced the other 22 million with one of his most sparkling innings in years. Hussey single-handedly pulled Australia back from the brink with an unbeaten 81 before day two was abandoned early due to bad light.

In the Daily Telegraph, Simon Briggs suggested that while the second day's play had made for absorbing viewing, it was not so absorbing that there wasn’t time for that regular hobby of all frustrated England fans - poking fun at one-eyed Australian commentators.

Also on Sky, Shane Warne has spent the last couple of days reminding England fans not to get too cocky about the assumed demise of Australian cricket. Though at least his eight years at Hampshire have given Warne an international perspective that is entirely lacking in some of his countrymen. Healy, by contrast, sounds as if he has been buried in a cellar for the decade since he retired.

Neil Manthorp looks ahead to India’s tour of South Africa by focusing on the off-field issues in both countries. India’s coach Gary Kirsten has found a way to work within the Indian system and get rid of some of the unnecessary media attention, while the financial murk surrounding Cricket South Africa is deterring sponsors, he writes in the Mail & Guardian

Somehow, Kirsten has found a way to work with the Board of Control for Cricket in India's administrators when all others, Indian and foreign, had endured far more conflict than cooperation. His "secret" is very simple and an old strategy. He sells his best ideas to the "big men" in the boardroom as being theirs and then allows them to take the credit when they succeed.

In the New Zealand Herald, David Leggat says that though Daniel Vettori's side did better than expected in the tough Test series against India, questions remain ahead of Pakistan's arrival in January.

To McIntosh or not to McIntosh? Auckland opener Tim scored a gritty century to sit alongside scores of 0, 0, 4 and 8. The jury remains most assuredly out.

What of Gareth Hopkins? He seemed the obvious successor to Brendon McCullum as test keeper but didn't grab his opportunity. Batting in a range of spots, including No 3 in the final innings at Nagpur when he had a perfect opening to show his capabilities, Hopkins scored 44 runs in five innings. Others are waiting in the wings.

The opening day of the Ashes certainly didn't disappoint in terms of drama; beginning with Andrew Strauss's early demise, then the stunning hat-trick from Peter Siddle which sent England crashing to 260 all out. After all the hype the action had matched the expectation. The visitors, though, will be cursing a chance to put real pressure on Australia and, as Simon Hughes in the Daily Telegraph, examines how Siddle did the damage.

The crowd were roused from their somnolence and Stuart Broad from his repose in the dressing room. Late and unprepared, he was beaten by the swing and intensity of a leg-stump yorker and was lbw. A hat-trick, which even the umpire review system could not deny. Three moments of straightforward endeavour had turned potential solidarity into adversity. It was back-to-basics cricket. They miss, I hit. Siddle, picked as much for his perseverance and willingness to rough up the tail as anything else, had done his captain proud.

In the same paper, Nick Hoult profiles Siddle and his rise to the top which has included a fair amount of setbacks.

A complete reconstruction of his shoulder, a stress fracture to his foot and even a tooth abscess have caused him to take time out. His most recent absence, a 10-month lay-off because of a stress fracture of the back, was the wake-up call players sometimes need in their mid-twenties. In order to recuperate, Siddle spent time training with Australian rules football team Carlton and former Olympic champion cyclist Scott McGrory. It was this exposure to different sporting cultures he thinks has brought about a lasting change.

Ian Bell stood out for England with his strokeplay, but in the Guardian Vic Marks looks at Alastair Cook's valuable innings which kept his team in the contest until Siddle struck.

Cook is a cricketer of contradictions. He has matinee idol looks: a gleaming smile, jet-black hair and eyebrows that supermodels might covet. Along with Jimmy Anderson he is an automatic choice for the moody posters now required by the marketing men. There is definitely a touch of glamour about him - until he picks up his bat.

However, not everything went right for Australia and there is further concern over Mitchell Johnson's form as he went wicketless through 15 overs. In the Sydney Morning Herald, Jesse Hogan says time is starting to run out for the left-arm quick.

Fast bowler Abdul Haq moved from North Waziristan in Pakistan to Abu Dhabi after being overlooked by the Pakistan selectors. But he was spotted by the team coach and management during the Abu Dhabi Test against South Africa - and, after a fiery bowling stint at the nets, got an offer to try out again back home. The Express Tribune has more.

"I was called by [Pakistan coach] Waqar Younis - who gave me the title of Tagray Pathan (strong pathan) - to bowl to his batsmen. I felt honoured and extremely encouraged when the batsmen seemed to struggle against my bowling," Haq said. "Younis and [bowling coach] Aqib Javed really appreciated me and later, team manager Intikhab Alam took down my contact details and invited me to the NCA." Haq has played with frontline Pakistan bowler Umar Gul in Peshawar but complained that due to the situation in North Waziristan, he never got proper guidance.

In The Guardian, Frank Keating evokes memories of a youth spent following England's Ashes tours to Australia on wireless sets tuned to the BBC's world service on the eve of the first Test at Brisbane.

The radio ritual has been a quadrennial winter-warming rite for solemn Ashes observance. Crucial to me is that the richest flavours of remembrance need the BBC box to be full of Oz commentators' ripe vernacular as the ball hits "the pickets", not the boundary fence; that extras are always "sundries"; and that the scorecard numbering is forever eccentrically reversed, as in that inaugural score back in 1946 when it was eight for 659 and not the other way around.

In the same newspaper, Former England coach Duncan Fletcher believes that, while there will, understandably, be nerves in both camps before the Ashes get underway it is the team that masters its fear that will prevail.

There are two very nervous teams in Brisbane right now. But it is when you drive to the ground on the first morning of the match that the stress of the Ashes really starts to show. As I remember it no one seemed too worried in the team meeting on the evening before the first Test in 2006. It was only when we were on the bus that it became clear how anxious the players were feeling. The atmosphere was so quiet. Nerves affect different people in different ways. Most players tend to go into their shells, though the odd one or two will become perky and try to crack jokes to lift the mood. What is obvious is that people are not being themselves.

In the Sydney Morning Herald, Greg Baum unpicks the implications of consequences of two little words that will be of utmost importance on the first morning: heads or tails?

n one sense, this agog moment is a waste of energy. The overwhelming orthodoxy is for the winning captain to bat first. Ricky Ponting has departed from it only twice in 36 wins of the toss, Andrew Strauss twice in 16. It might even be this morning that the toss is superfluous, one side already having decided to bat, the other to bowl. It is one of cricket's eccentric charms that we will not know until afterwards.

In The Australian, Simon Barnes describes the Gabba as "a kind of lie detector" that "worms out and exposes to the brutal light of the sun anything that is bogus, boastful, ungenuine and untrue".

It's hard, the Gabba. Even the grass is hard. It's an architectural statement of the principle that you don't play sport for fun. You play it to be better than other people. Sport is a thing without pity, where even the best find themselves cruelly exposed, forced to appear before the world exactly as they are, all pretensions stripped away. For losers here, failure is curiously total.

In The Telegraph Jonathan Trott insists nothing will stop his pre-ball preparation routine, and suggests that while the first session at Brisbane will be seen as a statement of intent, England will be focussed on the big picture.

It would be easy for us to put too much energy into that first session. We have to keep it in perspective and not get too down or too carried away. Of course it is an important session, but that goes for every Test match. You can go a long way towards losing a Test in the first session or the first hour, but it is wrong simply to focus on those opening skirmishes. We have to be prepared to win a lot more battles and a lot more hours of Test cricket than just the first.

For those following the Ashes from the UK the series will become a strange addiction over the next six weeks as sleeping patterns are ruined to follow the action. After all the build-up and all the hype now there is huge expectation. In the Independent, Mark Steel recalls his memories of the joy (and pain) of watching the Ashes.

Last time, I saw the first day's play in a sports bar in central London that was jammed with about 500 people watching Harmison's opening ball in which he bowled it almost sideways, causing a world record for the largest number of people to yell the words "Oh for fuck's sake," in perfect synchronicity.

In the same paper, Stephen Brenkley looks at the seven England sides that have managed to win in Australia over the last 100 years.

Over at the Guardian, Andy Bull takes a final look at how the two sides are shaping up in the latest edition of The Spin.

England's meticulous preparations have been designed to leave the players with no excuses for failing. Every conceivable angle has been covered, from the presence of the shadow performance squad in Australia to the decision to send the Test attack early to Brisbane to acclimatise, from the Probatter virtual bowling machine to the tests to see which fielders have the sweatiest palms and should therefore be kept away from the ball in the field, the idea is that nothing has been left to chance.

Meanwhile, Paul Newman of the Daily Mail heads a round-table discussion on the series with David Lloyd, Michael Holding, Michael Kasprowicz and Nasser Hussain.

Newman: How big a factor is the toss, Nass?

Hussain (shaking his head): You're a beauty! Well, I don't think my decision here eight years ago cost us the Ashes, put it that way! Australia were just the better side , whereas this time round they are under immense pressure. The papers here are criticising selectors and their captain is under pressure, while ours is strolling around without a care in the world.

And finally, here are some tips about staying up through the night from the BBC.

By far the best way to prepare for a night shift, whether eight hours of work or eight hours of cork on willow, is to shift your sleeping pattern over a matter of days. If a would be night worker stays up until 5am the night before a shift that finishes at 8am he's half way there. It takes anything up to a week to get used to a new sleeping pattern, says Prof Jim Horne of the Sleep Research Centre at Loughborough University. But there are certain things you can do if you've got no time to ease into the switch.

In the Guardian, Andy Bull charts the rise of Graeme Swann from the wilderness of the county circuit to being the No. 1 spinner in the world.

Eleven years ago Duncan Fletcher had just taken charge of England. One of his first jobs was to pick a squad to tour South Africa that winter. Among the 17 players Fletcher selected was a whippersnapper named Graeme Swann. Fletcher had never met Swann but had heard good things about his off-breaks. Before the squad boarded the plane at Heathrow, he took Swann to one side in the departure lounge for a quick get-to-know-you chat. "Where do you see yourself in five years' time?" asked Fletcher. Swann, Fletcher remembers, turned around and said: "I am going to be the best spin bowler in the world."

"I've always remembered that conversation," says Fletcher. "I hardly knew the boy. 'Sheesh!' I thought. 'That's good, I like that.' But when we got to South Africa and I saw his attitude I thought: 'Boy, you're going nowhere.'" Fletcher, as every English cricket fan now knows, never picked Swann again.

Check out Barney Ronay's duffer's guide covering the key Ashes terms you'll need to become acquainted with before that first morning in Brisbane.

The Telegraph is revisiting England's 1986-87 tour, the last time they won the Ashes in Australia.

Merv Hughes had eased off the takeaways and was fulfilling a lifelong dream of facing England in the Ashes, and he had started well, dismissing Mike Gatting, Allan Lamb and John Emburey.

Botham was approaching his hundred, though. He took two off the first ball of the over to go to 99. He then hammered Hughes back over his head for two to reach three figures, before a six soared over deep square leg. Bob Willis, commentating on Channel Nine, purred: “People should savour every moment they can to watch this player; they only come once in a lifetime.”

As they look to stem the decline in their supremacy on the world stage, Australia aren't willing to settle for mediocrity in their players anymore, writes Peter Roebuck in the Sydney Morning Herald.

Hauritz has not been dropped because he has done anything wrong, or let the side down. He has been ditched because he is serviceable, not special. The selectors have decided that is no longer enough. He might be the best spinner around but he cannot fly. Plainly, the selectors intend to prune and plant with the ruthlessness missing in recent years but often observed in the past. Players not quite up to the task will be told as much. Genuinely gifted players will be identified and promoted quickly, dropped after a poor patch and recalled as soon as they have sorted out their games. Let the moderate beware.

I believe Brisbane is England's best chance of winning a Test match in Australia. It is at the Gabba where they can bowl Australia out twice because it swings for the majority of the first day. It also offers a bit of seam movement and can spin early too, writes Shane Warne in the Sunday Telegraph.

In Brisbane, the key to taking 20 wickets is to get the batsmen on the front foot. Too often visiting teams bowl too short. They see it seaming and bouncing and get carried away. But the secret is to risk being driven through the covers and down the ground so you can get the nick. Around 75-80 per cent of the wickets in Brisbane are catches to the keeper or slips. David Saker, the England bowling coach, was very successful in Brisbane as a bowler so the England quicks must listen to his advice. He was a swing bowler like James Anderson, so he can pass on invaluable knowledge to England's main man.

England face bravado and belligerence but if Andrew Strauss is brave in his field placings he can win the Ashes – as I did in 1979, writes Mike Brearley in the Observer.

Strauss has many fine attributes as captain; he concentrates, he treats the players with respect, he is tough, consistent, and can play the longer game. From what I've seen, I'd back him ahead of Ricky Ponting. Both seem to be well-respected by their players, but neither is, to my mind, tactically inventive. As is the modern habit, they tend to be defensive in field-placing. I should like England to be more willing to attack in the field, especially when the ball swings (the new ball has even more significance in Australia than in England, since it loses its shine and bounce much more quickly), and when key batsmen are new at the crease.

Trying to follow an Ashes series in Australia is the most exquisite punishment sport has devised, says Michael Simkins in the Sunday Telegraph

For while the guilty pleasure of hunkering down for another night in front of the box when all around are in bed initially seems alluring, the dream soon turns sour. The stronger-willed may be able to tear themselves away at the lunch interval (usually about 1.30am) but, at the age of 53, even this mild adjustment to my body clock is sufficient to render me unfit for purpose the following day. And that’s on a good night. There have been other times – too many other times – when my wife has come downstairs at 4am to find me snoring on the sofa, the TV blaring out an old Audie Murphy Western after the remote control tumbled from my outstretched hand.

"If this Ashes series is about one man, it is about Ponting, a tough, laconic product of Launceston's working-class northern suburbs, one of the greatest batsmen of this or any other age," writes DAvid Hopps in the Observer. "Win and he may even seek further retribution in England in two years' time. Lose and he could be forced into retirement, left to chew forever over his legacy as an Ashes captain who lost three times, a record Australia will never forgive."

In the Independent on Sunday, Stephen Brenkley spoke to John Snow about the tour to Australia forty years ago, when England won the Ashes for the first time since 1956.

What should never be forgotten is that, above all, there was some outstanding cricket played between two teams who, metaphorically, were prepared to punch each other's lights out. England eventually prevailed 2-0, winning two Test matches in Sydney. Snow took 31 wickets at 22.83 runs each. He can be bracketed with Maurice Tate and Harold Larwood, other fast bowlers who prospered in, and antagonised, Australia.

"We went out in much the same situation as the guys are going out this year," said Snow. "Australia were in a bit of a trough player-wise, the others hadn't quite come through and there was a feeling that there was a good opportunity, even though it was on Australian soil, to win it and get the Ashes back."

Cricketers playing their first Test or series at home are likely to have better results and more successful careers than those debuting away. Read this article in the Economist for more.

A strong debut seems to lead to a shinier career. Every additional ten runs scored in a debut series adds an extra five runs to a player’s career average. The effects of initial success are similar for bowlers. One possibility is that a good start builds confidence and experience that boosts future performance. A bad start, in contrast, is not easily forgiven: selectors appear to discard potentially high-ability players who had the misfortune to debut abroad.

Neil Manthorp, in the Mail and Guardian, ponders the reasons as to why Brian Lara would play in a domestic Twenty20 tournament in Zimbabwe. If he keeps his side of the deal, Manthorp says, his contribution to Zimbabwe cricket could be immense.

Lara is a hero in Zimbabwe almost as much as he is in his haven of Trinidad and Tobago. Even young Zimbabweans more inclined towards soccer know exactly who he is and are drawn to him. Cricket bosses believe he could seriously shape the future of the game in the country, which is why they are considering paying him what many would consider an obscene amount of money to formalise a three-year relationship. But if Lara upholds his side of the deal it really could be worth it in the long run.

David Leggat, in the New Zealand Herald, picks out five features of New Zealand's performance in India that have enabled them to draw the first two Tests. They include the emergence of Kane Williamson, the reliability of Chris Martin and the promotion of Brendon McCullum as opener.

When it was mooted that Brendon McCullum should go to the top of the test batting order at the same time as giving up the keeping gloves in five-day cricket, it's fair to say the plan wasn't greeted with universal support from the cricket public.

ODIs and T20s, fine. But tests?

With the widely accepted requirements of seeing off the new ball, being patient, having a solid technique and leaving those ramp shots in the dressing room? Hmm, not so sure about that.

Hashim Amla has been on a tear in 2010, especially in one-day cricket, collecting centuries like they were cheap stamps. At the same time, he has not allowed his stellar individual form to go to his head, writes Patrick Compton in IOL Sport

It would be putting it fairly mildly to say that Amla is not a great self-publicist and certainly does not pay court to the local and international media. Sometimes it’s hard to pin him down for an interview unless it’s strictly about cricket within a structured media environment.

I asked him why. “Look, the media notice things, good and bad and of course they write them up. I’m always hesitant to talk too much about things when they’re going well, because you know that cricket is a game of swings and roundabouts. You’re either going up or down. In that sense it keeps you honest all the time.”

England's Ashes attack has three extremely tall bowlers - Chris Tremlett, Steven Finn and Stuart Broad - and the bounce they extract in Australia could make run scoring difficult for the batsmen, writes Mike Selvey in the Guardian.

The England bowling coach, David Saker, says: "History shows that taller bowlers are usually the better ones, especially in Australian conditions." And as he speaks, he is mindful that in his care are Steven Finn and Chris Tremlett, both 6ft 8in, as tall as Curtly Ambrose or Joel Garner, the tower blocks that generally come to mind when the height of bowlers is discussed, and Stuart Broad, who is 6ft 5in. No taller group has represented England. No Australian can top that and it is a factor that has not gone unnoticed in Australia. "It is England's beanpole bowlers versus Australia's pygmy slingers" opined Tasmania's Mercury newspaper on Tuesday, "and it's advantage England."

With Zaheer Khan out injured, India’s bowling will struggle in the third Test against New Zealand at Nagpur, R Kaushik predicts in the Deccan Herald. Harbhajan Singh and Pragyan Ojha have been comprehensively outbowled this calendar year by Zaheer in Test cricket, he says, despite the fact that all India’s Tests have been in the subcontinent.

Daniel Vettori is too much of a gentleman to savour somebody else’s misfortune, but the mental sigh of relief as the announcement was made in his presence that Zaheer would miss the Nagpur game with a groin strain wasn’t hard to imagine. More than Harbhajan and Ojha, Zaheer has loomed as the Kiwis’ biggest threat this series; now, the Kiwis will quietly fancy their chances of a remarkable and unlikely coup at the VCA stadium in Jamtha stemming from the knowledge that their principal tormentor won’t be around.

The BBC’s Oliver Brett attempts to explain the paradox that is Shane Watson: a man who has been Australia’s second highest run-scorer since the 2009 Ashes series, but is yet to impress many of his countrymen.

To the unreconstructed Australian sports fan, Watson is thus something of an anomaly - and it helps explain the paradox that he does not meet with universal approval in his own country. The Australian blogger Jarrod Kimber really sticks the boot in, writing recently: "It takes real talent to be hated when you are pathetic and just as despised when you are good. Even those who have the talent to get to this level of hatred could never do it as well as Shane Watson. When not in front of the mirror, he seems to be able to move 95% of cricket fans into a frenzy of hate, pure detestation, clear revulsion, and a general uneasy sickness of rage."

Success on the field and off it may see Kevin Pietersen reinventing himself from a highly focused solo artist to a family man content to settle for the rung below the greats, Derek Pringle writes in the Daily Telegraph. For the sake of the Ashes series, though, England fans will want to see once more the fearless batsman with the skunk hairdo and diamond earring.

Every batsman experiences a wobble or two during their career but Pietersen’s quivering uncertainty when faced by left-arm spinners has been a real David and Goliath leveller for England’s most talented batsman. Whether the underlying doubts came before or after the lefties exposed him is the chicken-and-egg question Pietersen and England need to crack if he is to become a match-changer again.

From left field, John Stern, editor of theWisden Cricketer, has a unique idea for an innovation in one-day cricket: an American football-style squad system, wherein sides can name an almost unlimited number of players in their squad and use them as and when the game requires them.

There would be no tail-enders, no rubbish bowlers. There would be no selection of an XI – only batting, bowling and fielding line-ups that could be switched at any time. Players could be substituted at any time though no more than 11 players could bat or be in the field at any time and the over restrictions on bowlers could remain. You could pick your best wicketkeeper without worrying how many runs he’ll get you. You might have a keeper who’s great standing back and one who’s a whizz up to the stumps. They’ll both be in your squad and they will both get on the field.

Former England coach Duncan Fletcher, who took England on two Ashes tours to Australia, believes the current Australian team is the worst in 30 years. Even so, how England deal with their position as favourites will be crucial to their success, he writes in The Guardian.

Every signal the Australians are sending out speaks of the confusion in their camp and the breakdown in their planning for this series. It all makes you wonder exactly where Australian cricket is at the moment. You have to go back more than 30 years, to the era when Kerry Packer had tempted away the best players to World Series Cricket, to find the last time the team were in such a muddled state. And at least back then it was obvious that they still had some talented players in reserve. At the moment you would struggle to know if that was true of this team, simply because none of the young players has been capped yet.

In the latest edition of Spin, the Guardian’s Andy Bull says despite all his achievements, Ricky Ponting’s reputation as a captain rests on the result of the upcoming Ashes series.

Nobody would claim that Ponting is as astute as Brearley or as aggressive as Taylor. Since he stuck England in and lost at Edgbaston in 2005 he has chosen to bat first on every single one of the 29 occasions he has won the toss. But he has still been an outstanding captain, a man who inspired his team through deeds rather than words, and led by example rather than exhortation. But unless he can recapture his best form, that is not going to be enough to get him through this series. As a captain Ponting has succeeded through winning matches with his bat. If he can't do that he is going to have to prove he can win them with his nous and his man-management. Not many people think those are skills that he has. Perverse as it seems after all his accomplishments, his reputation rests on proving them wrong.

England should not worry about bowling with the Kookaburra ball in Australia, says Vic Marks. After all, he writes in the Guardian, it is round, red and has a seam, just like the Duke’s ball they use at home.

Bowling in Australia with a Kookaburra is not so different to propelling a Duke in England. The same principles must be followed while there remains the same necessity for the bowlers and their captain to be streetwise and flexible. If the ball is swinging a slightly fuller length is required; if not an adjustment must be made rapidly before the ball has been driven frequently to the pickets. That applies in Birmingham as well as Brisbane.

You only need to look at the lucrative options Anil Kumble turned down in order to get into the world of sports administration, to realise what a stunning decision he has made, says Suresh Menon in dreamcricket.com.

Former players are fond of mouthing the cliché about giving something back to the game. Usually that is a euphemism for discovering how much more the game can do for them. By ignoring the path of least resistance and choosing to take one that is fraught with pitfalls, Kumble might just inspire a whole generation of players. Those who want cricket associations to focus on the game rather than on politics.

In the Age, Peter Roebuck says Australia’s 17-strong squad for the first Ashes Test may seem shambolic at first sight, but is actually a sound strategic move and shows the selectors won’t be pressurised by marketers into showing their hand early.

Evidently, the panel was not prepared to commit itself to anything before it was ready. Certainly it was not willing to be rushed by a bunch of marketers. Selectors get panned enough as it is. Accordingly, they kept options open. Admittedly, they overdid it by including three spinners but the strategy is sound and all and sundry have been offered an insight into their thinking. After all, it is Australia's team, not Cricket Australia's. In truth, the squad - though tis more like a battalion - named yesterday does not matter a hoot. Only 11 can take the field at the Gabba and the rest is sound and fury.

Meanwhile, the BBC’s Jonathan Agnew says that the Aussie selectors’ decision is a sign that they don’t know who their best eleven are.

The announcement that Australia have named a 17-strong squad for the first Ashes Test against England has certainly got people talking down under. They aim to take only 12 or 13 to Brisbane, where the first Test starts on 25 November, but this underlines the uncertainty that exists over the form and fitness of several players. It seems as though they have no real idea what their starting XI will be, and that must be a concern for them.

In the Financial Times, Matthew Engel reminisces about how the 1962-63 Ashes series made him infatuated with Australia and says the Ashes is a unique bond between two countries at the uttermost ends of the earth.

Anglo-Australian relations do have the most glorious safety valve: a mechanism unique in diplomacy. On November 25, the valve will return to action. After almost 130 years of mutually satisfying strife, the battle for the Ashes will be joined once again: five Test matches lasting up to five days each, to be played in Australia’s five main capital cities, concluding in the first week of the new year.

Sport and international relations are becoming increasingly muddled: consider the politicisation of the bidding process for the Olympics and for World Cups. The role of the Ashes is far more positive. It is a unique bond between two countries at the uttermost ends of the earth. It is stronger than trade (Australia is well down the UK’s list of partners), stronger than the increasingly irrelevant monarchy, stronger even than the ties of family that, even these days, get frayed or snapped by the tyranny of distance. There is nothing else like it in sport or any other field of endeavour.

In the Jamaican Observer, Hartley Anderson laments West Indies’ poor preparation for their tour of Sri Lanka and says Shivnarine Chanderpaul will be the key player in the Test series.

Much could depend on the form and mental sharpness of former skipper Chanderpaul. The little left-handed Guyanese has had a relatively quiet year by his standards, and is no doubt relishing the thought of a forceful comeback, despite having been deposed as the world's No 1 batsman some two years now.

If there is one thing about Shiv, it's that he has a fiercely competitive spirit, loves batting for long periods — he is one of only three men in the history of the game to have batted for over 1,000 minutes without being dismissed in Tests — and is arguably second only to Ramnaresh Sarwan in the regional pecking order in playing spin bowling.

Tom Melville writes an open letter to Don Lockerbie, the CEO of the USA Cricket Association, on dreamcricket.com, warning him of how difficult it will be to make cricket popular among Americans.

For anyone to claim “I’m going to turn America into a cricket playing country” is tantamount to claiming, “I’m going to turn America into a Spanish speaking country; I’m going to turn America into a Muslim country.” A pretty tough row to hoe! Expectations must be brutally realistic; efforts must be highly imaginative; planning must be exceptionally creative.

Know that America is not a “cricket culture,” it’s a culture that does not know, does not care about, and, in many ways, is hostile towards cricket. No matter how much experience, no matter how much “expertise” anyone may have accumulated in a cricket culture, he will soon discover they’re virtually worthless here, and can never be a substitute for hands-on, face-to-face, experience working with Americans at cricket.

The Observer’s Emma John meets Kevin Pietersen and discovers a vastly different man from the all-conquering peacock that had just returned from scoring three hundreds in five one-day matches in South Africa in 2005.

Is he happy to accept a lower profile himself? "So what, I'm just part of the team now, is that what you mean? Yeah, I don't mind, whatever, as long as I'm playing for England I'm not really too fussed. Just playing with a team that can compete is going to be great." If he sounds low-key, that is the new KP. In the past, touring Australia would seem "quite a daunting thing" but now "it's just a game of cricket". He exhales, and starts to sound alarmingly laid-back. "People make things out to be things that they're not. That's one thing that's helped me in my career – not making things bigger than what they are."

Meanwhile Pietersen’s old team-mate Steve Harmison, a man responsible for a savage opening over in the 2005 Ashes series but infamous for his shocking series-opening blooper in Brisbane four years ago has been talking to Peter Hayter in the Sunday Mail about that delivery and England’s chances this time round.

“Was it the worst ball I ever bowled in Test cricket?” he said last week. “I think it was probably the worst ball anyone has ever bowled in Test cricket! I won't sugar-coat it, or say it looked worse than it was or offer excuses. It was atrocious. All I wanted to happen was for a big hole to open up in the ground and for me to jump in it and disappear.”

“Jimmy is one of the best bowlers in world cricket now and a highly intelligent operator,” said Harmison. “People have raised the issue of how he will fare with the Kookaburra ball, and his record abroad is not as good as it is at home. But the way he swings the new ball both ways at pace, I'm backing him to have a big impact with the new ball. In fact, I think our attack is superior to theirs all round and the main reason I think England will win comfortably.”

In the Sunday Telegraph, Kerry O’Keeffe predicts Nathan Hauritz will take more wickets than Graeme Swann in the Ashes and Michael Clarke will get the most runs.

Hauritz could strike his bunny Andrew Strauss on the pads so much the video umpire will need to hire a receptionist to handle the referrals. To date, the Australian slow man has had the better of the English skipper, dismissing him eight times in 13 internationals. Kevin Pietersen is the fly in the ointment ... if he successfully bombs Hauritz down the ground, the spinner will be under extreme pressure. However, KP is a sweeper; he won't be able to resist the shot. Call me Simon Cowell if you like, but Swann may well be a one-trick pony possessing little appreciative out-curve to the right hander and no deceptive doosra.

Meanwhile, in the Daily Telegraph, James Anderson says he realised what a good bowler Swann is when he fielded in the slips to him against Bangladesh.

His arm-speed always looks the same, but there could be 15mph difference between his deliveries. I guess it must be the way the ball comes out of his hand, but it is difficult to tell, even from slip. I try and keep my arm-speed the same when I bowl a slower ball, but some people might see it from the hand. The ball that gets Swann most of his wickets is the under-cutter, as he calls it. As a left-hander batting against him in the nets, I play a few off-breaks all right and then he gets me lbw with the one that skids on, or so he tells me. Swann is the world's best umpire as well as the best spinner.

Peter Roebuck says in the Sun-Herald that Australia are searching for the way forward, while England continue to play open and attacking cricket.

Not so long ago, the Poms might have batted out their match against South Australia. Now they threw the contest open with a declaration. Not so long ago, England were desperate to avoid embarrassment. Now they seek victory and then prepare to send their top bowlers to Brisbane a week early to acclimatise. Unmistakably, the momentum is with the visitors.

Australian also need to embrace the adventurous spirit. Nothing condemns a side more certainly than negativity. At present an anxious mood has formed around the team and it needs to be dispersed. It is the inevitable result of the struggle endured by a handful of players worried about their places. Cricketers under the pump become introspective, fearful of error. Before long, the entire team is ill at ease and poorly placed to resist a more outgoing opponent.

Rizwan Ali of the Associated Press was at the first ever cricket match at the Asian Games, played between the women’s teams of China and Malaysia. Ali says the fans in the stadium were confused by the rules but China may just pick up a medal in the sport after India decided not to send a team to the Games.

The Chinese spectators were so unaware about the rules of the game that they waited for the announcements — made both in Chinese and English languages — before they cheered their team. They rarely broke that trend, even waiting for the announcement before putting their hands together during the seven boundaries scored in the home team’s innings and six wickets fell. The announcements of “One run to China” and “boundary for team China” were loud and clear. Somehow the cheers went off inexplicably after the 10th over when China was 54-3. “Probably the crowd has gone confused like me,” said one of the ever smiling volunteers, who did not want to be named.

As cricket's foremost sledging war, the Ashes, gets underway, the Independent has come out with a list of the game's most memorable insults.

Sri Lankan skipper Arjuna Ranatunga was not the most popular figure on the international circuit, and was perhaps most unpopular with the Australians (perhaps because he did rather well against them). One occasion, the great spinner Shane Warne was trying to lure the comfortable figure of Ranatunga down the pitch and was being frustrated by Ranatunga's unwillingness to be tempted. Wicketkeeper Ian Healy piped up: "Put a Mars Bar on a good length. That should do it."

Malcolm Conn, writing in the Australian, says if Michael Hussey begins this Ashes series and is sacked for poor performances then part-time chairman of selectors Andrew Hilditch should also be sacked.

The conservative four-man selection panel of Hilditch, David Boon, Jamie Cox and the recently removed Merv Hughes have left Australian cricket in a worrying position. They have failed to adequately continue a renewal process forced on them by a cluster of former champions fading away in recent years.

Brendan McArdle says in the Age the selectors have made a series of poor decisions.

In the Sydney Morning Herald Stuart Clark, who played in the past two Ashes series, rates the England touring team.

Mike Norrish of the Telegraph says that the PCB’s suspension of Zulqarnain Haider's contract was expected but it is the ICC that should have come to his aid.

The real issue here isn’t the farcical PCB. It’s the International Cricket Council. Presented with the most rare, fleeting and precious of opportunities – a potential whistle-blower – the ICC should have sent officers straight to London to meet with Haider. Its entire resources should have been directed toward protecting and reassuring him.

Even if Haider had proved to be as unreliable as his critics are claiming, the ICC was surely obliged to find out first. He is a desperate man looking for a sanctuary – literally – but the ICC have done nothing to provide the safety or security Haider is seeking. Or worse than nothing – they have left it to the PCB.

With the first Ashes Test less than a couple of weeks away, the Independent has compiled a slideshow of some of the most famous quotes from cricket's oldest rivalry down the years.

The Hyderabad Ranji Trophy team has undergone a shake-up with the resignation of two coaches following its humiliating defeat at the hands of Rajasthan in Jaipur, where it was bowled out for just 21. But is the new coach, former captain MV Sridhar, the right choice? More on it in the Deccan Chronicle.

This sudden surfacing of Sridhar has come as a surprise. “He did not have time for the Association while he was joint secretary, vice-president and secretary. Suddenly, how can he be the coach,” questions former HCA secretary Man Singh. Sridhar holds the record for the highest individual score — 366 — for Hyderabad in Ranji Trophy but has no experience as a coach. “If you are looking for qualified coaches, Doc does not fit in,” Man Singh says. “He’d start as an absolute newcomer and novice.” Thus far, the HCA has made no move to look beyond reshuffling the old and tired pack of cards. How about a coach from outside Hyderabad? Or maybe even outside India?

There are many aspects that make the build-up to this Ashes series feel different to previous series. England have won their first tour match, Australia have lost at home to Sri Lanka and there are rumours of discontent in the hosts' camp. However, one of the other major differences is that England have arrived armed with the best spin bowler in the world. Graeme Swann is No. 2 in the world rankings and is viewed by many as the key to destination of the urn. However, the man himself is trying to keep it all in perspective - in his own unique way - as Stephen Brenkley found out in the Independent.

Good judges, of whom Warne can be considered one, have all been queueing up to note how effective Swann is. Warne indeed likened him to David Hasselhoff, once the beefcake star of the TV series Baywatch, in which he showed his pecs and Pamela Anderson flaunted other parts of her body. The comparison appears to have bemused even Swann.

"You certainly haven't seen me with my top off," he said with that lovely sardonic air he has. "Maybe it's that when I put my orange bathers on and walk along the beach I am surrounded by a plethora of hot women, but those days are behind me now because I am happily married."

The turmoil in Pakistan cricket took another extraordinary twist when Zulqarnain Haider fled Dubai for London claiming he had received death threats following the fourth one-day international against South Africa which he helped win. It has once again throw the spotlight on the murky, and dangerous, world of bookmakers and match-fixing. In the Guardian, Mike Selvey looks at what the impact of Haider's move could be and says his life won't get any easier.

If you think this is an exaggeration, hyperbole, then think again. Not all attempts at match- or spot-fixing, perhaps few, involve massive personal gain for the perpetrators or greed on their part. The rewards are for others, the players pawns in the game. They are in a vortex from which they cannot escape. But perhaps Zulqarnain has evaded it and, if so, he is already a brave lad who has defied some extremely nasty people.

England's arrival has coincided with strange times for Australia who, whatever form of the game they play, just keep losing, writes Vic Marks in the Observer.

Yet there are some strange things going on. There was a flurry of activity over the succession of the Australian captaincy, deftly laughed off by Marcus North, who was suddenly suggested as the new heir apparent. The selector Merv Hughes has got the bullet and a "professional", Greg Chappell no less, has been appointed. They seem to be following the English template. They do not usually do that.

Of more concern is the form of their senior cricketers. Against Sri Lanka on Friday Ponting was out pulling – again. Michael Clarke looks tortured and distracted. Witness his failure to complete a straightforward run-out at Sydney by trotting up to remove the bails with ball in hand. Instead he hurled it at the stumps from a couple of yards and succeeded only in hitting Shane Watson's knee. And Mike Hussey is starting to look his age and fallible.

Australia’s cricketers are driven no longer by the old certainties and are vulnerable. But it remains to be seen whether England can wound them fatally, or just superficially, writes Scyld Berry in the Sunday Telegraph.

The fallout from Australia's series loss against Sri Lanka is continuing in the local media with serious concerns about the home side ahead of the Ashes later this month. However, in the Sydney Morning Herald, Peter Roebuck says England have plenty of their own issues to confront before the Test matches begin and there's still plenty of hope for Australia.

The time has come to ditch the pessimism. Australians are no good at introspection. England are not exactly a pack of cards but they're not a fortress either. Breaches can be found. Strauss commands a middling team with a poor away record. These rivals are fourth and fifth in the rankings. Consider those further down the list. Zimbabwe are under the yoke of tyranny, Bangladesh are fighting poverty and inexperience, West Indies do not exist having endured a cricketing collapse, Pakistan are in disgrace and New Zealand think mostly about rugby. Anyone below that lot ought to take up rounders.

Meanwhile, in The Age, the former Victoria captain Darren Berry takes his look at the captaincy situation following reports that Michael Clarke has lost the dressing room.

The past few months must have set off the alarm bells in the halls of power as to whether Michael Clarke is still heir to the throne. His form has dipped in all formats with a slight reprieve recently in India in the one-day arena. His class as a player at Test level and his ability to get the job done in ODIs is not in question, but his role in the Twenty20 team has reached embarrassing proportions. Many good judges have known for some time he was not suited to this format, now blind Freddie knows it as well.

James Franklin bats and bowls as he wishes at domestic level but the same confidence has never been witnessed on the international scene. Some are getting impatient. The selectors have given contracts to lesser players, the public is losing faith, writes Jonathan Millmow in the Dominion Post.

You can imagine the scene. James Franklin has scored another hundred for Wellington, a national selector knocks on the dressing-room door and tells him he is required up the road immediately.

His Firebirds team-mates pat him on the back, watch him rush out the door and then all think to themselves "for God's sake Franky, get a big one".

Australian cricket has lost its mojo mainly because it lacks the talent but also because it's become soft and indulgent. Many players are getting huge money and national caps without earning either, writes Robert Craddock in the Daily Telegraph.

This is the age of the silver spoon. Players have never been better looked after. There was a point early in the recent tour of India where Australia had more support staff than players. Players not only have personal managers but within the Australian framework have doctors, physios, psychologists, nutritionists, batting coaches, bowling coaches ... you name it. It's got to the stage where players have almost become over-managed. Many players lack the ability to think for themselves off the field and that can flow into their on-field psyche.

A chance to throw down a few balls at a batsman eager for practice; extended photo-ops with international cricketers; and the opportunity to view a new talent before he is spotted by the rest of the world - the Ranji Trophy is fine the way it is, writes Sandeep Dwivedi in the Indian Express.

The only way they will fill the stands for a non-India cricket game is when there are cheerleaders on field, superstars dancing in the stands and when they are presented with a format that guarantees a “thrill a minute”. They will beg, borrow and steal to get tickets for these games. They will get insulted and assaulted to get into the stadium. They will use dirty urinals and go without water during the game. But throw an invite to sprawl on the lawns and enjoy a Ranji game for free and there will be no takers.Maybe, Ranji’s informality breeds contempt.

Shakib Al Hasan's stellar leadership against New Zealand has given the Bangladesh selectors an interesting dilemma when Mashrafe Mortaza returns. Bishwajit Roy of the Daily Star writes it is important for the board to make the right decision ahead of the World Cup.

It is now very hard for Mashrafe to concentrate on the additional responsibility of captaincy when he is consistently tormented by injuries. It would be great to see Mashrafe bowling again with full rhythm and everyone in the country prays for his good fortune. But the growing belief is that he needs first to concentrate on prolonging his career before he is entrusted with the additional burden of captaincy.

November 1 marked an anniversary that passed many people by and one that the ECB are still trying to forget. It was two years since England took on Allen Stanford's All Stars in the now infamous match in Antigua for the prize kitty of $20 million. The scorebook recalls a 10-wicket thrashing for England and plenty of embarrassment, but that doesn't begin to tell the story of how Stanford's world was already falling apart around him.

Andy Bull, from the Guardian, was one of the journalists to cover the story from the start to, well, as far as it's gone, and he delves into his own archives to remember the murky tales that developed. It's all the latest edition of Spin.

I first met Stanford in February 2008, three months before the ECB signed its deal with him. A friend was working at a consultancy who had been doing some work for Stanford's firm, and he had heard word that Stanford's people were looking to make contact with some English cricket journalists. He put them in touch with me. A few weeks later I flew out to Antigua along with three other journalists, two English and one Australian. The trip was entirely at Stanford's expense.

It's a widely acknowledged fact that England have their best chance of winning in Australia for more than 20 years and the British press pack is getting pretty bullish about the team's chances. In the Daily Telegraph, Steve James can't quite work out what all the fuss is about ahead of the series because the Aussies have gone downhill so much.

The truth is that somebody needs to say it: Australia are simply not very good anymore. They are losing for fun at the moment. They are the new England. Even grade cricket is said to be going soft. Just like we used to in the Eighties and Nineties, they now seem to pick players out of a hat. Last Sunday they played a T20 international with players from only two states. They lost. In the past two years 45 players have represented Australia in Tests, one-day internationals and T20s. And they’ve only got six domestic teams! No wonder they’ve just sacked Merv Hughes as a selector.

Over in the Guardian, Vic Marks takes a more measured approach and looks at five areas that will be crucial to the outcome of the series.

If the sun shines there is little lateral movement in Australia. Batsmen are more likely to be undermined by extra bounce, which may be why we have sent what must be the tallest ever English pace attack to Australia – Stuart Broad, Steven Finn and Chris Tremlett are 6ft 5in and over. For batsmen this means that pronounced footwork is not quite so essential; there is not such a need to lunge forward to stifle sideways movement. But for batsmen and bowlers it is not as if they have suddenly been transported to Mars. The same basics still apply.

India’s real premier league - the Ranji Trophy - started yesterday with no fans, and no fanfare, writes Kunal Pradhan in the Mirror.

The tournament’s disconnect with cricket fans has never been more apparent than in the last three when the IPL — marketed by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) as an international sports league — has brought with it packed stadiums and hotel lobbies brimming with fans waiting to get a glimpse of their favourite stars ...

The new season of the tournament, which is now 76 years old, started yesterday. Newspapers gave it full-page coverage, opting for the retro chic because nothing of more importance was going on. There was even a match on TV. Things were looking good for Ranji cricket after a long time, but only from a distance. At the Bandra-Kurla ground, where 39-time champions Mumbai started their campaign against Saurashtra, there was neither a sense of history nor a single fan.

In DNA, Taus Rizvi speaks to Vasant Ranjane, the Ranji Trophy cricketer whose record for best figures on debut nearly got broken on the first day of the 2010-11 season.

Reminded of his 57-year-old feat, Ranjane could not stop talking in excitement. A former fitter with the Indian Railways, the 73-year-old did not know the importance of a Ranji Trophy game.

“What’s his name and where is he from?” he asked about the Rajasthan debutant. “I remember that I had a record. But I wasn’t educated enough to know about Ranji Trophy or Test cricket.

Khaali bhagwaan ka naam leke bowling daalta (The only thing I knew was to bowl by taking god’s name),” he told DNA. Incidentally, Chahar was also on a hat-trick but could not complete it. “I was not well on the first day of the match. I did not tell anyone.

In the words of Andrew Strauss, England are 'leaving no stone unturned' in their preparation for the Ashes and their planning will be given a boost by the local knowledge of their bowling coach, the former Victoria paceman David Saker. There is talk that Saker will be lured back to Australia after the Ashes, but in the Guardian Mike Selvey finds out that there is no chance of any divided loyalties over the next two months.

Signing someone of Saker's credentials was a coup, his Australian knowledge a massive bonus, his desire for the job evident in the way he paid his own way to England for an interview rather than use a conference call. Equally evident was his subsequent delight in living here. He is an anglophile, his family enthusiastically absorbed into life, close to Stratford-upon-Avon and Flower. He loves his pubs, English ale and cricket chatter.

A transfer of allegiance, especially at this time – an Australian helping England retain the Ashes in Australia – was never a stumbling block. He sang God Save The Queen, he says, as lustily as anyone when England played Australia in the T20 final in Barbados, and not just for show. He is one of the England team in the strongest sense.