Michael Clarke will captain Australia in the fifth Ashes Test in Sydney and Tom Fordyce in BBCSport says that while it should feel like the pinnacle of Clarke's career - captaining his country for the first time, in his home town, against the old enemy in an Ashes Test - it doesn't quite feel like the celebration or the coronation that it should be.

Clarke deserves his opportunity to prove the doubters wrong. At 29 years old he should be ready for the challenge, even if he is currently averaging only 21 and has inherited a side more inexperienced than any Aussie outfit since Taylor's team of late 1995.

Peter Roebuck, writing in the Sydney Morning Herald, says Clarke has five days and five weeks to demonstrate he has the qualities needed to captain any cricket team, let alone his country.

Clarke needs to convince colleagues he can carry a team along with him, has to persuade the public he cares, demonstrate to elders he is sufficiently mature and to all and sundry he can stand his ground against high pace. No one has ever doubted his style. Now is the time for substance.

Writing in the Courier Mail, Robert Craddock says that Australian cricket has moved into dangerous territory by appointing a Test captain who has more than his fair share of critics.

Back to the Sydney Morning Herald and Jamie Pandaram says that no cricketer polarises opinion like Australia's 43rd Test captain, Clarke.

Nick Hoult in the Daily Telegraph writes that judging by the swathes of negative comment so far Clarke has a very hostile audience to convince this could be the dawn of a new era.

He has soldiered on through intense pain from a back condition, cut his hair short and thrown away the ear rings of his youth. He never courts controversy, with his comments to the point of banality. He is the working-class kid called Pup who has done very well for himself. He could be about to surprise a nation.

England have retained the Ashes in style by beating Australia in all departments, and by performing so well in Australia they have changed perceptions, writes Michael Vaughan in the Daily Telegraph. No longer is it a case of England could be the best in the world, but that they should be.

If you look at England then you can see Andrew Strauss going on for three or four years. The team can stay together for a long time and there is no great side for them to be fearful of. There is no gulf in class between No 3 in the world and No 1, which was the case when Australia were far better than anyone else

Patrick Eagar, the ''godfather of cricket photography'', is hanging up his camera after four decades of stalking the boundary ropes looking for that perfect image. Most of the time he found it. Peter Hanlon takes a look back at Eagar’s career in the Sydney Morning Herald.

His chosen media - shooting for magazines and books rather than newspapers - have suited his gentler approach. ''A modern picture editor in a newspaper, all he wants is a really good celebration photograph to put on the front or back page, the bowler with his hands up and mouth open. You go to a Test match and end up with five days of celebration pictures, but you haven't got any narrative. What actually happened? Who took the catches? How?''

Studies of great players underscore his point. Eagar is pleased Steve Waugh likes the image of him batting at Lord's in 1989. It is the second Test, England is yet to capture Waugh's wicket, and here is why: right toes grounded behind the crease, knee on turf as left leg is thrust seemingly halfway down the pitch. Elbow points skyward, eyes are fixed on the ball beneath baggy green cap, bat is angled such that contact sends the ball to ground. Jack Russell awaits the chance that never came; their evening shadows accentuate an image of impenetrable batting perfection.

England's retention of the Ashes was a consequence of months of planning and tactical superiority, writes Stephen Brenkley in the Independent.

England have been stupendous for most of this campaign, for which they prepared meticulously. They did so in assessing the tactics they would need to prevail on Australian pitches and in selecting the players they would need to carry out those tactics. In batting, bowling and fielding they calculated a way they needed to play and for the most they played like it.

England's performance in Australia this series trumps the achievement of 2005 at home, says James Lawton, also in the Independent.

In the Daily Telegraph, Derek Pringle writes of the influence Andrew Strauss's captaincy has had on England's achievement.

In the same newspaper, Simon Briggs says England's task is still incomplete with another Test remaining, and they need to ensure there is no window spared for an Australian fightback.

Duncan Fletcher, the former England coach, agrees in the Guardian, saying England must win the Sydney Test to stake their claim for the No.1 ranking.

Rob Smyth, in his Guardian blog, calls the triumph as deliverance for a young generation of England fans who had never before seen an Ashes win in Australia, and then looks back at the painful memories of the numerous hammerings earlier teams received.

India have levelled the three-Test series against South Africa with an 87-run win in Durban. Writing in the DNA, Sanjjeev K Samyal says that though India have been long known as tigers at home but lambs abroad, they have turned things around in 2010 capping it off with a fantastic win in Durban, and have proved themselves worthy of being the No. 1 Test team in the world.

It was the biggest year in Indian cricket. For the first-time ever, our cricketers were in an unfamiliar position of being the favourites each time they played a Test. Thanks mainly to Laxman, Tendulkar, Khan and Harbhajan, the team did not do its cause any harm by fighting back every time their reputation was at stake

Writing on his blog Siddhartha Vaidyanathan says that the Durban win is very special because it shows just how far India have come in 14 years.

Fourteen years down the road, we’ve no doubt come a long, long way. Hammered in the first Test and put into bat on a green pitch, against a potent pace attack, which includes arguably the best bowler in the world, India have responded in a most inspiring fashion. Deprived of any warm-up games, they’ve adjusted to the conditions and shown the kind of character that one never saw in the ‘90s

VVS Laxman was declared the Man of the Match in the Durban Test. Writing in the Telegraph, Mukul Kesavan says Laxman is Indian batsmanship’s embodiment of grace under pressure.

Just as Gavaskar begat Tendulkar, Viswanath made Laxman possible. The radiance of that 281 makes an alternative batting lineage visible, one in which greatness is measured by epic deeds, not consistency

In the Australian, Malcolm Conn argues that after Cricket Australia failed to handle the transition of eras after 2006-07, change must now start at the top.

Australia developed the bad habits of county cricket it had despised and ridiculed for so long. The states, which appoint delegates to the CA board in a bizarre and lopsided fashion, were recycling modest players to represent them instead of taking a broader long-term view to produce future talent for their country.

Peter Roebuck in the Age writes that Ricky Ponting deserves some leeway, but Tim Nielsen is one of the men whose positions should be looked at following the Ashes defeat.

The positions of the coach and vice-captain are more problematic. For decades Cricket Australia set the benchmark for sporting administration. Now it seems overstaffed and heavy-handed. The decision taken a few months ago to give Tim Nielsen a three-year contract extension seemed ill-advised. On the day of his removal those responsible ought to go with him.

And in the Independent, Roebuck calls for introspection from Australia into issues ranging from selection to coaching and preparation of pitches.

In the West Australian, John Townsend backs Ponting to stay on as captain, at least in the short term.

Several things are clear from the innings defeat yesterday, the second by such a margin in three Tests and the fourth loss in the past eight Ashes Tests. The first is that Ricky Ponting remains the only credible candidate to captain Australia. He might not be in a year, or even in August when Australia travel to Sri Lanka, but there is no alternative with his substantial spread of talent, authority and willingness to confront what amounts to a national sporting crisis.

Now is not the time to make serious changes to the Australian side, says Shane Warne in the Daily Telegraph. Australia must wait until the end of the Sydney Test, and perhaps the remainder of the Sheffield Shield to plan the way forward.

In the Guardian, Kevin Mitchell tracks the rise of England and the simulateous decline of Australia through the Ashes series so far.

Graeme Swann does an impersonation of Richie Benaud and Tony Greig, hands out awards for 2010, and thanks everyone for the warm response in his latest Ashes Video Diary.

Malcolm Conn compares Australia's Ashes capitulation in Melbourne to the Titanic's tragic end. Writing in the Australian, he wonders whether the selectors can afford to axe the captain Ricky Ponting, whose experience makes him vital in this time of upheaval.

There will be no emotional retirement. Cricket Australia would have to sack him, and that appears most unlikely because his experience is needed and the focus will immediately switch to the one-day World Cup on the subcontinent early next year.

Robin Scott-Elliott of the Independent notes how the media has turned against Ponting's team, and the growing feeling that Michael Clarke may not be the right man to take over.

Gnashing of teeth remained the overarching theme of the day. Back to The Herald Sun and Andrew Webster: "We can cop the hiding. We can swallow that England is better. We can even stomach the Barmy bloody Army. But what we want to know now is how Australian cricket, the national sport, will be recovered and rebuilt." And finally, a historical summation from Greg Baum: "Rarely since the First Fleet dropped anchor has Australia been so comprehensively claimed for England."

Australia may have been disjointed and off-colour, but the series equally highlighted the ruthless efficiency of the England outfit, arguably the "most disciplined and well-drilled to ever undertake an Ashes tour" according to Vic Marks, writing in the Guardian.

Kevin Pietersen apart, the durable technicians rather than the dashers have scored the runs; Cook and Jonathan Trott just kept on batting. Meanwhile, whispering Jimmy Anderson has been the best pace bowler in the country, while Graeme Swann is obviously the best spinner.

It may sound sacrilegious to the old-timers but these men now deserve a mention alongside Tyson and Compton, Boycott and Snow, Gower and Botham, Gatting and Broad. They have joined a very select band.

Also in the Independent, Peter Roebuck sums up the excellence of England - "a team without heroes or egos, a hard-working, tough, thoughtful and committed outfit that has avoided bleating and inexorably crushed a shaky opponent".

England's work in the outer has been athletic and alert. It's hard to recall a modern Australia side being outrun by any touring team, let alone by traditionally heavy-footed Poms. Strauss's outfit had no weak links, no Phil Tufnell or Eddie Hemmings, to provoke caustic comment. Everything, too, has been rehearsed, including the relays and flick-backs. No stone was left unturned.

Would the use of technology, which enabled Aleem Dar to make two crucial decisions on the second day at the MCG, have also been able to avoid the travesty of Thierry Henry's handball that denied Ireland a trip to the football World Cup? James Lawton poses the question of whether technology should be used to assist football referees, as it does their cricket counterparts, in the Independent

Cricket accepts video evidence as a gift of the 21st century in the belief that it would be as absurd to ignore it as forswearing the benefits of antibiotics and running water. Fifa, on the other hand, rejects technology even as it enthuses over the possibility of turning the desert enclave of Qatar in a massive air-conditioning plant in order to make the 2022 World Cup possible – either that, or ransacking the traditional schedules of the entire game.

Ever wondered how cricket bats are made? The Daily Telegraph visited Gray-Nicolls in England and provides insight through pictures.

Ricky Ponting is a man under immense pressure and he blew his top in spectacular and ugly fashion when he remonstrated with Aleem Dar over an unsuccessful review. With the Australian press sharpening their knives already it wasn’t a smart move.

Malcolm Conn in the Australian says Ponting has ‘punched another hole in Australia’s oft mentioned spirit of cricket pledge’.

The statesman's cloth which has been sewn piece by piece around Ponting for much of the past decade fell away again when he took exception to a video referral involving a caught-behind against Kevin Pietersen which went in the batsman's favour. Ponting's disrobing revealed the Mowbray street fighter. The kid who would have given as good as he got playing Australian football against the men of Launceston in a previous sporting life. It appears as though the mounting frustration of a difficult summer all came bubbling out.

In the Sydney Morning Herald, Peter Roebuck has often questioned Ponting’s spirit, notably following the Sydney 2008 win against India, and he feels Ponting’s outburst was the sign of a man nearing the end of the road.

Every captain sooner or later reaches the end of his tether. Greg Chappell admitted he was unfit to lead his country on the day of the underarm ball. He had been too long on the road. By the look of things yesterday, Ricky Ponting's stamina, one of his assets, is fast running out. If so, it would hardly be surprising.

In the same paper Greg Baum adds his view to the incident.

Ponting's despair was understandable, but his pursuit of the matter was unseemly and too protracted. It betrayed the agitated state of mind of a man for whom cricket has turned sour. Ponting has only muted public sympathy. Seemingly, he is a victim of his times. Allan Border, Mark Taylor and Steve Waugh took Australia to the top. Ponting has won more games than any of them, but also has had to be both manager and public face of the rocky decline. He has not found it easy.

All out for 98 was not the Boxing Day the Australian team wanted, but as Robert Craddock argues in the Courier-Mail, it might be what they needed.

An Australian victory in this Ashes series would have only served to heighten Australia's belief that their system is going fine when it's clearly not producing young players of Test pedigree. They need an urgent review of their setup. If England win they deserve it. They banned wives from the tour where Australia took them everywhere. They chose an XI and stuck to them while Australia were forced to experiment. They arrived for this series even before Australia.

Greg Baum in the Age writes that it is Australia's lowest ebb since the Ashes summer of 1986-87, perhaps even lower than that.

But that Australian team featured Allan Border, Geoff Marsh and Steve Waugh, apostles to lead their generation from the wilderness. None such impress in this team.

Peter Roebuck in the Sydney Morning Herald suggests Australia's batsmen have nobody to blame but themselves for the predicament they found themselves in on Boxing Day.

Had the Australians adapted their game to suit the conditions due diligence might have brought a respectable tally of 200 or so, and a glimmer of hope. Instead they drove without proper care and attention.

Paul Lewis, writing in the New Zealand Herald, hits out at Kyle Mills' suggestion that the New Zealand media was to be blamed for the poor public perception of and structural changes in the team following their recent run of poor form.

If the power brokers at NZC are that suggestible, I'd like to make the following strong pronouncement: that, in this time of flux, Paul Lewis should be hired by NZC; that he should travel the world with the team where his principal function would be checking out the best restaurants and bars and writing the occasional press release to assure all those gullible fans that everything is all right; oh, and that he be paid half a million goo-goos a year for doing so.

Keen readers of this column will have noticed a bit of a pause then. That was me, waiting for the phone to ring.

In an interview with Mihir Bose of the London Evening Standard, Lalit Modi hits out against his detractors and the sceptics of the IPL, which used to be his feifdom.

"You may call it [my style] buccaneering or 19th century but we thought outside the box. Please do not compare me to the English Premier League or to any other league. We are unique. I can sit here and say there's no other league like that in the world, every member actually makes money. How many teams in the English Premier League make money? Look at the balance sheets, practically all of them are in debt."

Harbhajan Singh's bowling has been in terminal decline for some time now, writes Venkat Ananth on Yahoo Cricket. He delves into Harbhajan's numbers over the past few years and says that not only has the offspinner been unable to take wickets, he has not even managed to restrict the flow of runs.

What puzzles me is why Harbhajan's form or lack thereof is not considered worthy of greater debate; why he continues to be deemed an "automatic selection" despite three years of largely mediocre performances. Not so long ago, we used to question Anil Kumble after one bad series – where did that rigor, that analysis, go in the case of Harbhajan?

Simply put – what makes him the holy cow of Indian cricket? And how much longer will selectors blindly genuflect at that altar?

How can England stop Michael Hussey? © Getty Images

This is a make or break Test match for both teams. England can retain the Ashes at the MCG but an Australia victory will change the complexion of the series writes Shane Warne in the Daily Telegraph. Warne reckons Australia will win because they have all the momentum after their win in Perth.

In sport momentum is crucial because it has an impact on everything. Even in preparation, Australia will be confident and have clarity about what they need to work on. England will be thinking that they have to do certain things better. They will be working on extra stuff to try to get everything right. England will have to turn it around very quickly.

Mike Selvey in the Guardian writes that defeat in Perth was a jolt to the system, a wake-up call for the England players. But they will certainly not be panicked into making wholesale changes and may not make any at all.

Central to this is Steven Finn, who is the leading wicket-taker in the series but who also has tended to leak runs at an alarming rate at times – around a run a ball in Perth. The most radical thing, though, would be to show faith in Finn. Often the best decisions are those that would please the opposition least. Finn, the Australians know, can damage them.

In the same newspaper, Duncan Fletcher echoes a similar view, saying that England should be wary of making any changes to their XI unless they are making changes that have been planned and prepared for a long time in advance.

Nasser Hussain in the Daily Mail writes that Ricky Ponting will be taking a big gamble if he persists with an unbalanced attack of four fast bowlers against England in Melbourne. Ponting has said that the old Australia are back, but Hussain doesn't agree.

I can see already that Ponting is playing a few little mind games ahead of this huge Test. He is saying that Australia are back, that this is the old Australia and the Australia they have wanted all along. I'm not sure about that. I think what happened at the WACA papered over the cracks because it is a ground that suited them so well.

Back to the Daily Telegraph and Simon Hughes tries to work out just how the England bowlers can get Michael Hussey - Australia's leading run-scorer in the series - out.

They must challenge like with like and keep it simple. No batsman enjoys being starved of runs.They must be ultra disciplined and deny him anything to score off. They must make him chase the game. That means ball after ball on a good length on off stump

In an interview to David Leggat in the New Zealand Herald, John Wright, who has been appointed the New Zealand coach, says there are no quick-fixes to New Zealand's dwindling form. Wright says New Zealand should not get ahead of themselves and take it one game at a time.

"If you achieve certain goals, winning looks after itself," Wright said. "Whether it's as a player or coach, at international level you've got to have a hard edge, that attitude that 'we're going to take them apart'."

Andrew Symonds has gone from the glare of the spotlight to the anonymity of farming life in North Queensland, writes Peter Hanlon in the Sydney Morning Herald. Where the game that can seem like his cursed gift takes Symonds next will be decided at next month's IPL auction.

Even at 35, and with only a handful of Twenty20 games for Surrey this year to showcase his wares, he will surely be snapped up. And so continues the conundrum that has dogged him all along - his unique talent guarantees he is in demand, and while it seems he'd be just as happy doing something else, a man can't make the big bucks dangling a rod in the water.

During the Boxing Day Test, the MCG is hoping to host the largest crowd ever at a cricket match with 91,000 people expected by Cricket Australia. But, Mike Selvey says in the Guardian that maybe the existing record of 90,800, who attended the match between West Indies and Australia at the MCG in 1961, should stand, for it was a series deserving of such a crowd.

That winter, West Indies toured Australia and under their first black captain in Frank Worrell, helped create not just a memorable series but one that remains a defining time in cricket history. No other sporting team have been embraced by the Australian public as were Worrell's men. In Brisbane they played out the first tied Test in the most dramatic fashion, before losing over the new year in Melbourne, winning in Sydney and drawing in Adelaide. 90,800 people attended the first day of the decisive match, at the MCG once more, a rain‑affected affair in which, amid some controversy, Australia scrambled a win by two wickets.

Writing on the website tvnz.co.nz, Max Bania says the selection of 18-year old fast bowler Adam Milne in New Zealand's Twenty20 squad for the upcoming three T20 games against Pakistan seems to based more on media hysteria rather than actual performance.

Yes, he's quick and by all accounts has a mature head on young shoulders, but he's played three first class games and is essentially being picked on the basis of a couple of good four-over spells in a meaningless hit-and-giggle competition.

The New Zealand Herald says John Wright's assignment as New Zealand coach will be different from when he coached India. In the case of India, the job was about managing egos and coaxing supremely talented players to use their gifts to the fullest, whereas with New Zealand he will need to harness modest talent by building a strong team ethos.

The fine New Zealand sides of the 1980s, of which Wright was a part, went a long way by using grit and determination to overcome individual technical shortcomings and provide effective support for two world-class players, Richard Hadlee and Martin Crowe. Nobody encapsulated that better than Wright, New Zealand's third-highest Test run-maker. His career was built on hard work that ensured every ounce of his ability was evident at the crease.

As the Ashes builds up to a Boxing Day crescendo Mike Selvey in the Guardian asks if Mitchell Johnson, chief destroyer at Perth, can repeat his heroics.

It will be a surprise if Johnson can repeat his trickery at the MCG. Fully enclosed grounds can create their own micro-climate, but as with the Gabba it is not renowned as a swinging ground but rather one that can seam while the ball is new, and perhaps reverse swings later. The danger for England's batsmen now, though, is that because of the potential, there will be a temptation to want to play deliveries that until now their gameplan has been to avoid. It is a mindset they will do well to avoid although one it will be hard to avoid.

Lawrence Booth picks up a similar theme for the first of his 10 Ashes questions that need answering in the Wisden Cricketer blog.

Which one is the real Mitchell Johnson? The butt of Barmy Army jokes and songs who bombed in Brisbane, or the purveyor of panic who prospered in Perth? You suspect not even Johnson knows. And that in itself may unsettle England, who will have to work out pretty quickly in Melbourne whether they can leave everything alone outside off stump as per the Gabba. If Johnson swings it at the MCG without the aid of the elements, England could be in trouble.

Among the wreckage of England’s first innings at Perth, Ian Bell stood tall.Gareth Davies in the Daily Telegraph thinks Bell’s hardcore preparation might have something to do with it.

In the first three matches, the Warwickshire batsman has made 213 runs at an average of 71. Some of this success could have been because he was “put through hell” by a cagefighter. At least that is the verdict of Barrington Patterson, the 45-year-old professional fighter and trainer who is regarded as one of Britain’s hardest men. “He’s more aggressive, more ruthless, now,” insisted Patterson, an 18-stone heavyweight cage fighter and kick-boxer.

Richard Hinds in the Sydney Morning Herald looks at the sledging war that ignited at Perth and says Australia have rediscovered their nasty edge after the media uproar that followed their controversial victory over India in 2008.

The Australian cricket team was, up until the New Year's Test of 2008, a snarling, attacking, vicious, sledging machine. A combination in which any deficiency with bat or ball could be overcome with well-aimed invective, profanity-laden wit or, in extreme circumstances, a poke in the ribs for a batsman who entered the vast no-go zone around an Aussie quick's pointy elbows. The greats of the golden era had gone. Yet a far more important component of that rampant team remained - the malevolent soul that ensured the ends always justified being mean. Then, thanks to the carping of those squeamish do-gooders in the Members Stand and the media, it all went wrong.

John Wright will bring a tough approach to New Zealand cricket as coach, in stark contrast to the dreadful appointments made over the last two years. In will come passionate cricket folk which Wright never got to utilise through short-sighted administrators, writes Jonathan Millmow in the Dominion Post.

Now Wright has the power. Now the players are uncomfortable. They will have to train when they are told, not when tee-off times and television engagements permit.

Wright is friendly on the surface, but hard as nails underneath. He has a ruthless mind and players under him will be made to work hard on the skills.

Max Bania, writing for Tvnz.co.nz, says that it was a question of when Wright was appointed, and not if. And he is faced with a task similar to the one he accomplished admirably in India, turning around a team of under-performing players.

Some might say he achieved success with India by placating the likes of Sourav Ganguly and massaging their egos, but if he can effect the same turnaround in fortunes with New Zealand as he did with India, no one will care how he does it. His brief with the Black Caps will be much the same too: inspire their underperforming batsmen.

In the Times of India, Ayaz Memon says that comparing Sachin Tendulkar and Don Bradman would be a disservice to both.

In a couple of ways, both are joined at the hip. One is through mind-numbing statistics. Don Bradman’s batting genius is expressed best by his batting average of 99.94. This one simple numerical value reveals more about his skills and performances than would the countless books that have been written about him in the past 80 years. Tendulkar’s Test average, in the late 50s, is clearly not the yardstick of comparison. But 50 Test centuries is a whopping number. Add 46 more in ODIs - plus some more that are surely there in the future — and you could reach a figure that is likely to boggle the mind of all future generations, much as Bradman’s batting average has.

It is unlikely that an unescorted, cricket-challenged bystander at the Indian team’s training session would be able to spot the man who has scored 50 Test centuries among the group of flannelled men. With body language being the only cue to judge a player’s worth or his past record, Sachin Tendulkar, even with 21 years of international cricket behind him, can be mistaken for an edgy upstart or a jittery debutant, writes Sandeep Dwivedi in the Indian Express.

Every newcomer that walks into the dressing room has a Tendulkar story to narrate. It is usually about their observation while watching the legend preparing for the game. Many have tried to emulate him in all earnestness but given up as the standard set was too high and far too many sacrifices had to be made. Moreover, the ingrained meticulousness that Tendulkar has been born with was tough to cultivate. As a senior journalist once said after having tea in Tendulkar’s hotel room, “He prepares tea like he is cooking biryani.”

Tendulkar's achievements need to be looked at not just in a cricketing context but on par with efforts in any field — science, art, literature, etc — to push the frontiers of human excellence, says Dawn

There is no doubt that scoring a half-century of centuries is a remarkable feat in itself. This achievement speaks volumes for the cricketer`s temperament and his ability to adapt to changing times in the sports world. In fact, 20 years is a long time in the international sporting arena. Surviving for that long takes courage and determination. It is, as such, also about having enough passion for the game over that long a period to keep one`s fitness level at the requisite level.

Soumya Bhattacharya traces the starting point of Tendulkar's recent run of form all the way back to the 175 he scored in an ODI against Australia in 2009 in Hyderabad, when he almost single-handedly won India the match. Tendulkar, he writes in the Hindustan times, is still getting better.

As prodigious as he was murderous, Tendulkar exemplified in that innings a 36-year-old veteran who was celebrating, as it were, the teenager he had been, the one a nation could not but adore. We got it all in that 81-ball hundred: the impudent straight hits that disappeared into the stands; the textbook cover drives that split the field; the canny improvisations that yielded runs behind the wicket; the flicks off his legs to backward of square; and the hoicks in the arc between mid on and mid wicket that were destined to be boundaries no sooner had they left the bat.

The Indian Express dwells on what Tendulkar has meant to Indians over the years.

He was the guy, remember, who’d make up on the cricket field for our everyday inadequacies as a nation, for our singular failure to excel at other sports and for his team’s lack of support — he would, for the length of his innings, offer respite from all-round underachievement. Post-Mandal, post-liberalisation, post-Cold War, India’s doing better, other sports and the cricket team too. But he still stands out.

James Lawton pays tribute to Tendulkar in the Independent.

England will be shaken by this defeat, but should not think of stirring things too much. There are still remarkable vulnerabilities within this Australia team, writes Mike Atherton in the Times.

No doubt there are those who will use the arrival of the families to point out that England's smooth-running tour has taken a sharp downturn. Do not be fooled by such nonsense. England was beaten by its own inadequacies in dealing with Perth's special conditions. It is nothing to do with nappies, buggies or dummies and all to do with the brutality of cricket in these parts. As suggested here before this game, Perth was always Australia's best chance of success.

England need to successfully combat Mitchell Johnson if they want to win the Ashes, writes Stephen Brenkley in the Independent.

Stuart Clark, in the Guardian, says James Anderson's sledging tactics against the Australians, especially Mitchell Johnson, may have backfired at the WACA.

Recovering from a big defeat in Perth in the next two Tests will be a test of character for England, just as the Perth Test had been for the Australians, writes James Lawton in the Independent.

Australia had key batsmen who could scarcely buy a run and a bowling unit laughed to scorn even by their own people. Yet they found a way to win, one by one, and in some cases quite raggedly at times, they stood up to be counted. England must now do the same in Melbourne and Sydney.

England would look back on their performance on the second day of the WACA Test, when they let their guard down to cede the advantage, writes Michael Vaughan in the Daily Telegraph.

Derek Pringle, in the same newspaper, says England's defeat takes England fans back to the days when their team was accustomed to being beaten badly by Australia.

In the Guardian, Mike Selvey lists out five things England must do re-establish their supremacy in the Ashes, including tweaking the batting order.

In the Age, Peter Roebuck writes that Michael Clarke, who will captain Australia if Ricky Ponting is not fit for the fourth Test, still has much to learn about leadership.

Perhaps responsibility will be his making. Until then the middle-order man had been singularly unimpressive. Convinced that the pitch was a stinker, and inclined to voice his opinions even in the presence of youngsters, he had lashed away with the bat in a manner unbecoming a senior batsman. Happily Mike Hussey was not as easily cowed or else the Ashes might already be back in England's safekeeping. A leader cannot afford to give any sign of despondency.

Roebuck, this time in the Independent, says confrontational, attacking cricket from Australia helped them level the series in Perth.

Robert Craddock writes in the Courier-Mai that Australia's rotation of their fast bowlers could be a decisive factor in the Ashes.

Just after play on Saturday I did a lap of the WACA and saw England's bowlers leaving after their main duties in the Test had ended. They looked like men who needed a cold beer and a desert island. Steve Finn was walking like a man wearing high heels. He looked exhausted. Jimmy Anderson seemed to be limping. Even the cocky Graeme Swann had a face of stone.

In the Australian, Malcolm Conn hails an unsung contributor to the WACA Test.

For all the great performances in this match, most notably Mitchell Johnson's transformation from chump to champ in the space of a few net and fitness sessions, the person who deserves the most credit is curator Cam Sutherland. He has spent five years nursing the WACA Ground's once renowned wicket back to life. Hard, fast and true for decades, it became a neglected pudding which was handed to Sutherland for resurrection.

In the Guardian, Vic Marks says Australia might want to include a spinner for the MCG Test, despite dismantling England with four quicks in Perth.

Dan Silkstone in the Sydney Morning Herald says the world cannot get enough of the eternal party boy Shane Warne. He says whatever Warne did was always watchable and he never seemed to mind us watching. There are none so memorable now.

It's tempting to see him as some sort of everyman's dream - a glorious Peter Pan. But to say that Warne never grew up is to grossly oversimplify

Australia stumbled upon the right bowling formula for conditions in Perth, writes Vic Marks in The Guardian, but Melbourne will be another matter and a specialist spinner will be needed in Sydney. So who will make room for him?

Whatever the Australians say, it cannot help them that Beer is a completely unknown quantity at this level. He knows Melbourne because he was born there. No doubt he has played the odd game at the MCG. But now that the Australians are right back in the series, rather than grasping at any stray straw, they must be scratching their heads how it came to pass that they are turning up for the critical game of the campaign with such a greenhorn in tow. Of course, Beer could be the next Bishan Bedi; but he might also prove to be a poor man's Xavier Doherty.

In The Telegraph Derek pringle provides three questions both teams will have to find the answer to, while in the same newspaper Steve James argues that while England capitulated at the WACA they remain the better side.

Will England make changes in Melbourne? I’d rest Steven Finn, who looks tired and leaked far too many runs to scupper the attack’s pre-ordained plan of creating pressure, and play Ajmal Shahzad for his reverse swing on a ground likely to encourage that. There will doubtless be support for Tim Bresnan, especially in order to strengthen the batting.

In the Sydney Morning Herald Peter Roebuck looks ahead to the Boxing Day Test, which now has a special significance with the series so delicately balanced.

Sachin Tendulkar is the greatest Indian of our time, says Open magazine, and now that all words have been exhausted, they use a graphic tribute to celebrate his greatness

It has been a difficult year for Yuvraj Singh. Injuries have taken their toll on the now 30-year-old and he was dropped from the Test side as younger payers such as Suresh Raina and Cheteshwar Pujara have moved ahead of him in the pecking order. In an interview with DNA, Yuvraj calls 2010 the worst “in my 10 years of playing career” but says it has made him mentally tougher.

When things aren’t going right, people start talking about you, and you have to face a lot of criticism. All your extra-curricular activities are related to your game and it is very upsetting. But the way we survive in international cricket is to work hard, focus on your game, focus on the process. Getting up doing the same routine, staying around quality people helps. I get a lot of support from my family and my friends from the Indian cricket team. These things have helped me a lot to go through this year

Peter Roebuck dissects Michael Hussey's century in Perth in the Independent on Sunday.

Hussey's innings was a lesson in application, courage and execution. In truth he only played two shots with any regularity, the extra-cover drive and the pull, but he played them well and often. Of his 14 boundaries, eight came with pulls and four with off-drives. These strokes counterpoint each other admirably because they indicate that runs can be scored off both feet and on both sides of the wicket.

In the same newspaper, Bob Willis argues England should move Ian Bell up the order, ahead of Paul Collingwood. Scyld Berry shares the same thoughts in the Telegraph on Sunday.

Stephen Fay, also writing in the Independent on Sunday, says the biggest plus for England in the Perth Test was the return of Chris Tremlett, who stepped up in the absence of Stuart Broad.

Vic Marks, in the Observer, says Shane Watson's success as an opener could put him in contention for being the next Australian captain.

Peter Roebuck, writing in the Hindu, says India's preparation for the three-Test series in South Africa has been amateurish even though some of their players got there early.

By arriving a few days before the start of the campaign the Indians have reduced their chances of toppling their hosts. They are not playing a bunch of ne'er do wells but the second-ranked side in the world, and a team eager for an execution. Moreover the sides are competing for the title recently vacated by an Australia line-up that had ruled for 15 years and is now suffering a partial eclipse.

James Lawton, writing in the Independent, says Mitchell Johnson's exploits to put England on the back foot were offset by the poor performances of Ricky Ponting and Michael Clarke in Perth.

Johnson and Ryan Harris did conspicuously well in creating a first-innings lead but the wellbeing created by their performances was quickly enough diminished by fresh evidence that the Australian captain Ricky Ponting and his number two Michael Clarke are currently operating as though they have lost all confidence in what they are doing.

Conditions in Perth, which aided swing, made Johnson twice the bowler he normally is, writes Nasser Hussain in the Daily Mail.

In the Daily Telegraph, Steve James makes a case for Ian Bell to be batting further up the order than No.6.

In a much lighter vein, Alan Tyers, also in the Daily Telegraph, wonders what fired up Johnson during his spell.

Australia were desperate for a good start to the third Test in what amounts a must-win game for them, but the pressure seemed to get the better of the hosts' top order on the first day. Peter Roebuck, writing in the Sydney Morning Herald certainly believes they have been found wanting, with bad luck playing no part in the early dismissals.

Australia's brave new world bore a stark resemblance to the bad old world. Far from rejuvenating a flagging campaign as had been hoped, the newcomers flopped and within hours the team's position had become dire. Not that the established players were any better, hanging their bats out to dry in the manner of a washerwoman on a Monday morning. Once again it was left to the middle order and lower ranks to save the day.

Malcolm Conn in the Australian writes that Australian cricket is in a mess, from top to bottom.

The malaise filters down to the states, where the money sloshing around in this fiscally professional era means all sorts of appointees have to justify their positions and feel the most appropriate way is with silverware. So journeyman cricketers are recycled, clogging up a domestic competition which can no longer provide enough quality replacements for a regenerating side.

Chris Tremlett, who removed Phil Hughes, Michael Clarke and Steve Smith was England's stand-out bowler on the first day. Derek Pringle, writing in the Telegraph welcomes Tremlett's Test renaissance.

Tremlett, like Steve Harmison, possesses all the attributes of pace and bounce to be a special fast bowler. Past frailties to body and mind appeared to hold him back, though, dissuading those in power from trusting him. At least it did until a transformation, credited to his move from stockbroker belt Hampshire to the Surrey of Southeast London, re-ignited the slumbering giant within.

In the Guardian, Vic Marks chooses to focus on one incident that may come to define this edition of the Ashes: Paul Collingwood's stunning catch to dismiss Ricky Ponting.

It was a miraculous catch; some might say it was a lucky one except that Collingwood practises these catches day in day out. Ponting paused, not quite believing what had happened, and headed back to a sombre dressing room. The Australians, pointedly, had been laughing all week but there were no smiles to be seen among them now. It does not pay to smile too much when a recently dismissed captain is returning to the pavilion.

In an interview with Lokendra Pratap Sahi in the Telegraph, former India captain Sourav Ganguly reflects on India's previous tour of South Africa almost four years ago and speaks of India's chances on their current assignment.

Landed with very positive thoughts and I was determined... Come blows, bruises... I was ready to face everything and there was no fear... Even if it meant dying in pursuing the goal I’d set myself, so be it. My mindset was such that I had to be successful, that I would return home with runs against my name.

It’s going to be tough, but if our quicks stay fit, then South Africa’s batsmen will find themselves under pressure ... If there’s a worry, it’s that we haven’t played a warm-up match... The coach (Gary Kirsten) and (captain Mahendra Singh) Dhoni should’ve insisted on one. I’m surprised why that wasn’t done.

Emma John in the Guardian says the WACA in Perth is a shrine to malevolence, but is not the only world sporting cathedral to inspire fascination and fear.

It turns out that stadium visiting is a highly contagious behavioural pattern and, before you know it, you're standing outside Eden Gardens in Calcutta, pulling sad eyes until a kindly steward agrees to let you in for a peek, and the most precious item in your jewellery box is a small pouch containing bits of turf from Barbados, Sri Lanka and Old Trafford.

Cricket in the ongoing Ashes series may not measure up to what India and South Africa may offer in their three-match Test series, but the build-up to the latter is hardly the stuff of 'marquee' contests, says Scyld Berry in the Daily Telegraph.

Nothing, I am afraid, quite on this plane in the Ashes series. The top-five batting of both South Africa and India is as formidable, in talent and stats, as any series can have seen. But what a shame that the two boards, and especially India’s, do not allow all the potentialities of this heavyweight contest to breathe. It should be ‘a marquee series’ of five Tests, including one on the lightning pitch at the Wanderers where England shrivelled in January – not a three-Test squabble between backpackers over where to pitch their tent.

Makarand Waingankar in the Hindu says that the irony of Indian cricket is that not many talented cricketers did justice to the talent they exhibited. Such is the ephemeral nature of success in Indian cricket, which depends not just on real talent and performance.

T.E. Srinivasan is perhaps one such unsung hero. The art of batsmanship ran in his veins. To him it was a natural process, yet he played only one Test.

The third Ashes Test at Perth could be the defining moment of the series. Paul Newman in the Daily Mail says England, indisputably on the up, need to prove that they have eliminated the inconsistency that has seen them stumble at both Headingley and Johannesburg in the past 18 months when on the brink of famous series victories. Australia, on the other hand, have the next five days to prove whether they have bottomed out or whether Ponting can rouse them for one last hurrah.

England will have to buck history if they are to triumph here on a pitch which is the antithesis of anything they experience at home. But, then, they have been turning their noses up at history from the moment they arrived here and nothing that has happened since England's famous victory at Adelaide suggests that Australia can halt the smooth English passage towards the most comprehensive of all Ashes victories

In the Guardian former England coach Duncan Fletcher says that while he is hoping for and England win in Perth, he also believes a draw would be a better result for the sport and would be crucial in ensuring the series sustains the interest of the public.

Test cricket could be about to go through some tough times. In recent years the popularity and quality of the game has always been on the up but I worry we may be about to see it take a dip. The reason is that the sport has lost so many of its best players

Writing in the same newspaper, Mike Selvey says that a win in Perth would mean England have the Ashes job done with the prospect of a dominance not seen since Australian cricketing austerity times of the late 70s. An Australian win, though, would throw a panther among the black swans in the park: MCG, all to play for, teams level, Australia in the ascendant.

Flower's insistence on keeping partners out of the way until now was carefully thought out, debated, and disagreed with in some quarters, but has served them well. Now his work will be to ensure that the relief that comes with reuniting families does not in itself prove a distraction and a hindrance. The team are on the threshold of greatness in the English pantheon and cannot be allowed to blow it away in familial joy

Once again, in the Daily Mail, Lawrence Booth says that England, who are on the verge of creating history in Perth, have to guard against in 'Doosmday scenario'.

The pitch at the WACA will be in focus, and Stephen Brenkley in the Independent warns, that the pitch could be back to its old, bouncy self again.

Nasser Hussain, in the Daily Mail, looks at another factor that could be crucial at the WACA: the effect of the he afternoon sea breeze known as the Fremantle Doctor.

Writing in the Independent, Angus Fraser says that if Australia are to bounce back in Perth, they need to find a player who will rattle England. He says that opener Phillip Hughes could well have the ability to turn the series for them.

The England players have been joined by their families and partners in Perth and in the Independent, Harriet Walker considers the mysterious appeal of the men in white.

Ricky Ponting is under pressure, which is increasing all the time, and failure to win the third Test at Perth could be the last straw, writes Andy Bull in the Guardian.

It is not just that Phil Hughes and Steve Smith are back in the team, there are plenty of pundits and members of the public crying out that the time has come for the likes of Mark Cameron, Mitchell Starc, Steve O'Keefe and Usman Khawaja. Where would Ponting fit into that? If Clarke continues to out-perform him with the bat then his position will become untenable.

What does it take to win at the WACA? The BBC's Tom Fordyce grilled Justin Langer and Simon Hughes for the answer and Langer, in particular, had some very good advice for batsmen.

"The rule of thumb is to play the ball as late as possible. Playing with soft hands is a big thing. If you're watching the ball onto your bat and playing late, you'll have those soft hands naturally because you're not as far through the shot. People talk about hard hands, but you mainly play with hard hands when you're hitting the ball away from your body."

Also looking forward to the Perth Test, Jamie Pandaram writes in the Sydney Morning Herald that the only thing salvaging Australia's poor record at the WACA over the past five years is that England's performance record there isn't exactly stellar either.

The most recent draw produced by the WACA pitch was in 2005 when South African Jacques Rudolph batted 431 minutes for a dreary 102 not out in the second innings to save the match, with the Proteas finishing at 5-287 in the second innings.

Since then, Australia has defeated England in 2006 thanks to centuries from Michael Hussey, Michael Clarke and Adam Gilchrist and four wickets to Shane Warne, and last year when the Windies scored an incredible 323 in their second innings to fall just short on day five.

Between those two wins have been defeats, to India by 72 runs in 2008, and South Africa by six wickets the following summer.

Daniel Brettig, writing for the Western Australian reckons Phil Hughes - "Australia's version of power opener Virender Sehwag" - could be the man to turn things around for the struggling hosts.

India's Sehwag, regarded as the most destructive batsman in the world, frequently sets the course for a fast and furious start to his side's innings despite a less than flawless technique. And Hughes, who also has a far from regulation style, is happy to emulate him.

Donald McRae speaks to Alastair Cook about his transformation from a phase where his place in the side was in question just earlier in the year to leading England's charge in the Ashes Down Order. Read more in the Guardian.

Strauss was his most passionate defender – even when he failed twice in the tour's first warm-up match. Cook regained his rhythm, hitting a century against South Australia, but on the morning of the first Test he was more nervous than he'd ever been. "I'd begun to find a bit of form and I was desperate to have an impact on the series – because I'd failed in my two previous Ashes. That's why I was so nervous."

He endured a lonely moment in the first over at The Gabba when, at the non-striker's end, he watched Strauss offer a simple catch off the third ball of the series. "I just stood there and the noise was incredible. I looked down and thought, 'Right, we really need to get something going here.' It was hard. But Trotty [Jonathan Trott] came out and he's a very simple bloke when it comes to batting. He's got all his mannerisms but he likes us to have a little target – which might be scoring the next five or 10 runs. We used that to get through the first few overs that morning, especially when the noise was so intense. Trotty showed no fear."

Stephen Brenkely, in the Independent, wonders if the arrival of England cricketers' wives and girlfriends could hurt their Ashes hopes.

Perhaps it should not be a contentious issue. Most men (and women) go to work and then go home to the families in the evening. It is dissimilar, of course, for at least two reasons: sport is sport with the team thing being of obvious significance, and while the families might be here on holiday their blokes most definitely are here to work.

WAGs first came to prominence as an entity during the football World Cup in Germany in 2006 when they operated as a perfumed invading army. But they have been around in cricket for much longer. On the 1995 tour of South Africa when they arrived en masse for the Cape Town Test, the England manager Ray Illingworth observed that the team room had come to resemble a crèche.

After years of Ashes' humiliation, England finally have the upperhand against Australia in their own backyard. The Daily Telegraph's Jonathan Liew, however, says that the country is not sure how to deal with the good news.

It is the moral quandary facing all English cricket fans at the moment. To sympathise or not to sympathise? The idea of the mighty Australians being reduced to soapy panic and staring a heavy defeat in the face is a superficially appealing one. But when it actually happens, it’s like swatting the fly that’s been bothering you all afternoon.

As you examine its tiny, squashed features on your wall, the overwhelming emotion you feel is not really satisfaction, and certainly not triumph. Relief that you have re-established your supremacy over the insect kingdom, but regret that you’ve stained a perfectly good copy of the Radio Times.

Problems of a different kind for Australia, who are looking for Ricky Ponting's successor. Greg Baum writes in the Age that Shane Watson is a strong contender for the role, but only if the team can find a way to drop him to No. 6.

It would be unfair to ask Watson to open, bowl his quota and skipper the team, too; if made captain, he would have to return to No. 6, which would mean another restructure of a team already with too much of a jerrybuilt look about it.

Watson is ambitious, which is commendable; Test captaincy is not for the indifferent. At 29, his world view has broadened. But some doubt his capacity as a man-manager, especially of cricketers and their fragile egos. He is not famously subtle.

New Zealand have endured a horror run in ODIs recently, having lost 0-4 in Bangladesh and then 0-5 in India. David Leggat, in the New Zealand Herald, says that the selectors have to ring in the changes, and quickly, because the present one-day shambles cannot continue.

The flesh may have been willing but the spirit was weak. Too many players, notably senior figures such as Ross Taylor and Brendon McCullum with the bat and Kyle Mills with the ball, simply failed to deliver. They needed to lead the way and didn't.

Jonathan Millmow in the Dominion Post comes up with his New Zealand XI that he thinks can finally win an ODI game. Among the changes he suggests are making John Wright coach and bringing back quick bowler Ian Butler into the side.

They have to play some aces. Bringing in Wright is one, dropping Brendon McCullum into the lower order is another. McCullum might kick and scream but New Zealand need to rethink their tactics and their team.

Martin Johnson in the Sunday Times writes of the desperation that is obvious in Australian cricket circles, with criticism coming from former players, and he notes that “it’s all becoming delightfully nasty”.

Even when somebody pops up in more positive mood it raises a chuckle, as with the observation of the Western Australia and former South Africa coach Mickey Arthur on the prospect of what left-arm spinner Michael Beer might have in store for England in Perth. He described Beer as the "new Paul Harris", which was presumably meant to be a compliment, albeit a dubious one. If the new boy takes wickets in Perth, it will be a rare example of an Australian Beer being any good.

Beer's selection has raised more than a few eyebrows and Nick Hoult in the Daily Telegraph, says that Beer's rapid rise from club cricket, to Shield, and now to the national side, has surprised even his club team-mates.

If he is picked for Australia this week Beer will make his Test debut after playing only four Sheffield Shield matches. Warne had played one fewer when he made his Test debut against India in 1992.

In the Australian, Malcolm Conn points out the importance of Australia’s selectors showing faith with young men like Phillip Hughes and Steve Smith, as the panel of the 1980s displayed with budding stars such as Steve Waugh.

As painful as it may seem, if this Ashes series continues to keep going in the wrong direction, these young players need two things: patience and persistence. First of all they should be told they have the rest of the series to establish themselves. Don't play safety first, don't worry about your place in the team, play to your strengths and take the game on.

And in the Courier-Mail, Robert Craddock takes an often tongue-in-cheek look at ten reasons for Australian fans not to give up hope before the Perth Test.

2. Because it just doesn't seem right that Ian Chappell's resistance against Ian Botham in Adelaide Oval carpark should be the most fight shown by an Australian batsman against an English bowler this summer.

A 500-year old temple, breathtaking views of the Kullu Valley and the Dhauladhar ranges, 1,342 teams and Twenty20 cricket all feature in the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association’s plan to spread the game amidst the hills and valleys of the state, writes Jonathan Selvaraj in the Indian Express.

The tournament, which began on November 29, will go on for a month and a half. The participating players are mostly local villagers and though the organisers provide them balls, they have to pool in for bats and helmets, food and travelling expenses.

With breathtaking views of the Kullu Valley and the Dhauladhar ranges, the setting is spectacular. But the playing conditions are nowhere near perfect. The pitch is matting and the playing field is far from level—balls hit by a right hander towards the leg side tend to roll downhill where children in slippers play with bats crudely carved out of any available wood and balls made of cloth. Balls are sometimes hard to field when they slide off slopes or plop into streams. Occasionally, play has to be stopped as cattle and ponies traipse along the outfield, on their way to the jungle to graze.

Scyld Berry writes in the Sunday Telegraph that though England were dominant in Adelaide, they should be wary of Australia on the traditionally bouncy Perth surface.

The Western Australia Cricket Association ground – abbreviated, with a twang, to ‘the whacker’ – will have a pitch baked like bricks in an oven. Games there are no longer the bounce-fests they used to be, but the pitch for the opening tour game was still the liveliest England have played on so far, even if that is not saying much. It has the highest clay content of any Test pitch in the world; and it is not coincidental that England’s record there is their worst at any Test ground.

Vic Marks disagrees with that view in the Observer, writing that a supremely confident England should no longer view Perth as an Australian fortress.

But this time, England arrive in Perth as firm favourites, even among the majority of the Australian public. Andrew Strauss's side have been playing impeccable cricket. Since the third day in Brisbane, they have won just about every session of every day. In Adelaide, they produced one of the most flawless performances in recent history to win by an innings and 71 runs.

Virat Kohli, who has scored two centuries and two half-centuries in his last six one-day matches says, in an interview with the Times of India, he still gets goosebumps when he thinks about the players he is sharing the Indian dressing room with.

I have played against some of the South African players earlier. Dale Steyn was in the same IPL team for which I was playing. I have faced him a lot in the nets. As for South Africa, I did play the IPL there in 2009, but at this time of the year the pitches will be different. Of course, the IPL experience will help. The good thing is that the confidence of the team is high and the players are in good shape for the series.

Ross Taylor averaged 27.6 in New Zealand's five-match ODI series against India © AFP

Ross Taylor and Brendon McCullum are too inconsistent to be called world-class players, according to former New Zealand batsman Mark Richardson. New Zealand needs to bring in more players like James Franklin, who have been dropped and come back with a point to prove, he writes in the Herald on Sunday.

World-class players win matches through world-class performances but do it more than occasionally. Two of them are Brendon McCullum and Ross Taylor. Yes, they are capable and occasionally do perform world-class deeds but far too infrequently to be labelled world class. Somehow these two players who are crucial to our success must find a way to become more consistent. That alone is a skill and they are both deficient in that area.

Andrew Alderson says, in the same paper, New Zealand's problems lie with the managing conglomerate of high performance manager Roger Mortimer, coach Mark Greatbatch, and captain Daniel Vettori. He questions some of Mortimer's decisions and says Vettori should lose his calm demeanour and erupt on occassion.

Former Indian coach John Wright was scouted out by Vettori in [Duncan] Fletcher's absence but is believed to have turned down the opportunity on the basis that, if he ever takes the team, it will be on his terms. That response was understandable given the approach came after the 4-0 one-day loss to Bangladesh. However, Wright's interest was piqued until he rang his former Black Caps team-mate Greatbatch to discuss it. A source told the Herald on Sunday that is when he realised the current batting coach knew nothing of the move and got quite a shock when he realised he'd been kept out of the loop.

Former Hyderabad cricketer V Ramnarayan pays tribute to the late Tamil Nadu batsman TE Srinivasan and tells of his mischievous, quick-witted side. Michael Atherton's claim that Sunil Gavaskar said Srinivasan would have played more Tests had he not been from a lower caste is probably fictitious, Ramnarayan says in his blog Stumped, unless the upper caste Srinivasan managed to fool Gavaskar into believing he was from a lower caste with one of his crazy stories.

Greeting Ghulam [Ahmed, the then chairman of India's national selectors panel] at an airport, TE quickly realised that the veteran off-spinner, not unlike other selectors of the time, had not recognised him. “Good morning Sir,” he said, “I’m V Sivaramakrishnan sir, the opening batsman.” “Ah, Siva, good morning,” was Ghulam’s reply. Incredibly, he then asked TE, “How’s our friend TE Srinivasan?” giving him a glorious opening for one of his pranks.” TE’s reply was not only instantaneous but completely mad. “TE, sir? That rascal is up to no good sir, always drinking and getting into trouble.”

Also read Suresh Menon's tribute to Srinivasan on ESPNcricinfo

On cricketnext.com Imran Khan, Viv Richards and Arjuna Ranatunga speak to Gaurav Kalra about the state of cricket. They feel that while cricket is in great financial health, the lack of quality fast bowlers is worrying. The also weigh in on the impact of Twenty20 on traditional cricket, the roles of the ICC and the BCCI, the referral system, and more.

Imran: If a batsman plays a maiden over, how do you know he is taking money or not? That's my worry, that this could be quite widespread. It was the 'News of the World' sting operation, not some ICC investigation that caught them. So bear in mind that it was just by chance that it came out. Even Hansie Cronje's case was completely by fluke. It just happened that the phone got tapped and by chance he got caught. So therefore, I think measure need to be taken and they need to be drastic like bank accounts. All the players should submit their bank accounts. They should make it so transparent that how much money they have, how much tax they pay, assets declaration. It's got to be much more extensive, so that the deterrent factor is there, so that the people are scared that they can be caught. Otherwise, I don't know how you are going to catch spot-fixing.

We are only two Tests into the Ashes, but already the debate over where Australia have gone wrong has begun in earnest. In The Telegraph's round table discussion between Ian Chappell, Geoffrey Boycott and Michael Vaughan, Chappell was particularly critical of Australia's fielding, saying that they "looked like a bunch of Clydesdales in the field".

Also the Australians are not used to being out in the field for long periods without taking wickets. I mean, Jesus, six for 1,137! It’s easier being a good fielder when the catches are coming along pretty regularly, but when you drop a guy on five and he makes 150 or 200 every so-and-so remembers that. In past Australian sides, if you dropped a catch you knew that another chance would be coming along 10 minutes later.

Former Australia seamer Stuart Clark hit out at the Australian selectors, saying that their "chopping and changing" would severely disturb the team's bowlers in his Guardian column.

One of the major problems confronting the Australia bowling unit at the moment is the confusion surrounding places in the team. When a bowler feels under pressure, he will often lose sight of bowling plans and try to take a wicket with every other ball. That may sound reasonable in theory but, with Test pitches around the world generally flat, it serves only to relieve the pressure on batsmen.

The Spin took a similar tone, with Andy Bull suggesting that the Australian selectors were making all the same mistakes that their English counterparts had made in the 1990s.

Set a thief to catch a thief. If the Australians want to know what they have done wrong in this series so far who better to ask than the English, who for so many years made those very same mistakes. The English wrote the book on Ashes blunders. And there is not one they have not been culpable of committing since they last won an Ashes series away from home, back in 1986-87. There has been a familiar feeling about the mistakes the Australians have been making in the past fortnight.

In his column in The Australian Ricky Ponting insisted he was not considering retirement saying "my absolute focus is on all the things within my control".

I have not stopped for one moment to consider retirement. The question of my future as captain is ultimately a decision for Cricket Australia and categorically the future of Australian cricket must come first. I have every confidence in my ability to score runs and be the experienced batsman and leader that my teammates can rely on.

Sachin Tendulkar completing the first double-century in one-dayers has made it to TIME magazine's Top 10 sporting moments of the year. Other moments include NBA superstar LeBron James announcing his move to the Miami Heat, Uruguayan striker Luis Suarez's deliberate handball in the football World Cup and the incredible three-day duel between John Isner and Nicholas Mahut at Wimbeldon.

Australia's problems extend deeper than an inability to find a spinning replacement for Shane Warne, says Simon Hughes in The Telegraph. The troubles of the national cricket team are a symptom of a far deeper malaise, he argues both in the domestic cricket set-up and changing attitudes to sport more generally.

What has happened? A carbon copy of the upheaval that occurred in England 20 years ago. Cricket, and sport in general, ceased to be regarded as an important part of education. It is deemed more important to experiment with resins in the DT lab, or compose a power point document than have some healthy exercise. The facts are that in the 1960s Australian children played an average of eight hours’ sport a week. Today the figure in some schools is as low as 20 minutes a week.

In the same newspaper, Steve James struggles to hold back on the schadenfreude as he dissects Australia's squad for the third Test.

Goodness, the fun continues out here in Australia with the selection of the home side’s squad for the third Test in Perth. In comes a chap called Michael Beer. He’s a left-arm spinner and I’ll admit that the first I’d heard of him was when our star columnist, Shane Warne, was earlier this week deflecting us away from talk that he might be about to make a dramatic comeback.

Peter Roebuck makes a fascinating case study of Mitchell Johnson in the Sydney Morning Herald, suggesting that Johnson's character and conviction may be at odds with his undoubted ability.

Johnson has not the taste for stardom and not much for the sporting life. His ability exceeds his desire, his strength surpasses his appetite. Cricket has taken him on a journey that does not entirely suit him. Often he is reminded about the bad old days driving a plumber's van in Queensland, yet a part of him seeks that world with its obscurity and security.

Mike Coward writes in the Weekend Australian that it's time Australian cricket regained the spirit of Allan Border.

Fifty years ago to the week, as it happens, Sir Donald Bradman asked Australian captain Richie Benaud for permission to address his players before the first of five Tests with the West Indies. Bradman wanted the game played with greater enterprise and imagination. He got his way.

Perhaps the time is right for Allan Border to ask Ponting for permission to speak to his players before the third Test with England in Perth. Border, perhaps the most influential figure in Australian cricket since Benaud, could unload a few home truths and spell out just what is presently at risk.

The chop-and-change approach adopted by Australia's selectors is not going to help the hosts win the Ashes, writes Stuart Clark in the Guardian.

Mike Selvey, in the Guardian, comes up with a descriptive analysis of run-ups and their impact on fast bowler's effectiveness. Steven Finn, he writes, can take a leaf from the Frank Tyson and Glenn McGrath books to shorten his run and become more menacing.

Steven Finn's approach contains an element at the start consisting of half a dozen strides that offer him little, before he gets into his run proper. Even that is inconsistent in its graded acceleration. I am told that in practice he bowls just as fast from a shortened run as from his longer one, while experience tells me that you could develop a much stronger body action consequently, which would also serve to improve an already solid method. I'm told, too, that it has been suggested, but that he is reluctant.

Angus Fraser writes in the Independent that "With the exception of a few lost kangaroos wandering around Alice Springs there can be few lonelier animals in Australia than Ricky Ponting at this moment". Captaining a losing time is difficult at the best of times, but when coupled with poor personal form, it becomes a nighmare, Fraser says.

Captaining a cricket team is a glamorous job because, unlike in football and rugby, you are the main man. The coach/director of cricket is responsible for preparing the players for the game but it is the captain's role to manage and direct them on the field. When it all goes right and victory is gained there is no better feeling but when it goes wrong it is extremely stressful. Defeats cannot be laughed off, they are taken personally.

In the Courier-Mail, Robert Craddock looks at why Australia have struggled to find a good spinner since the retirement of Shane Warne. Natural ability notwithstanding, he believes Ricky Ponting's handling of the slow men hasn't helped.

Ricky Ponting has his strengths as a captain, but sympathetic handling of slow bowlers is not one of them. He has little or no rapport with spinners like Bryce McGain and Jason Krejza and his confidence in Hauritz ebbed and flowed dramatically. Slow bowlers who do not have their captain's trust are dead men walking. It just kills them.

Warne was lucky. His first Test captain, Allan Border, liked him the moment he saw him and put the initial surge of wind beneath his wings. Mark Taylor was different in a no-nonsense big brother sort of way. He used to squabble with Warne on the field but Warne later appreciated that Taylor's firmness was good for him. No spinner who has followed Warne has had this sort of bond with Ponting.

In the Sydney Morning Herald, Peter Roebuck has been watching Steven Smith play in a Sheffield Shield match at the SCG and believes he is worth a go in the Test side.

Smith is a better bowler than his returns indicate. On this evidence he is worth a go as a cricketer who adds zest to the batting and bowling. He has more spark than Marcus North.

Two things make Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel such a lethal new-ball duo, says S Ram Mahesh in the latest edition of Sportstar. Firstly, their styles complement each other, and secondly, they are individually “physical freaks.” Steyn’s endurance is tremendous considering how fast he bowls, while very few tall men bowl as fast as Morkel does.

Steyn and Morkel have the natural chemistry every successful partnership has. Sir Len Hutton once said of Ray Lindwall and Keith Miller that you couldn't pick a fight with one of them, for you'd have both at your throat. There's a similar sense to how Steyn and Morkel operate. Not only do their methods complement each other — Steyn's skiddy pace and late swing and Morkel's sheer speed and abrupt lift — they work on batsmen together. You need look only at how they roughed up and removed Michael Hussey in concert to understand this.

Malcolm Conn, writing in The Australian, says it’s difficult to believe an innings defeat to England can have a silver lining. But he argues Allan Border's sometimes dreadful team from the mid-1980s found one.

Such a scenario is not so obvious this time, after Ricky Ponting's team became the first Australian side in 24 years to lose by an innings to England, capitulating in Adelaide this week. England retained the Ashes in December 1986 by winning the fourth Test at the MCG inside three days to go 2-0 up with one match to play. Just 2 1/2 years later Border was holding up a replica of the Ashes in England after winning a six-Test series 4-0 with basically the same batting line-up.

In the Sydney Morning Herald Peter Roebuck writes that not much is going right with Australian cricket.

Most of the wounds are self-inflicted. Supposedly gifted youth has been glorified and the hard heads have been pushed aside. It is not entirely the selectors' fault. The system has broken down.

After three solitary Test wins in Australia in 20 years, the correct feeling for an English person after a 1-0 Ashes lead has been established should be smirking schadenfreude or gloating triumphalism. But over the past few days, a most unworthy emotion started to brew. I began to feel pity, says Tanya Aldred in the Telegraph.

They have twice since 2005 had to put up with England holding the Ashes, but in neither case was the victory a rout. This time, it may be. If England win the next Test at Perth, they will have retained the Ashes before Christmas. Preposterous, but possible. What then to do with the pity? Remember it as the emotion most likely to rile an Australian and just go with the flow.

"I have never seen such a conclusive victory over Australia in a Test match. England outplayed them from start to finish," writes Duncan Fletcher in the Guardian. "Looking at the state of the two teams now I believe that England can win the series 3-0."

The only ground I can see Australia getting a draw at is Melbourne. If the wicket there is as flat as it has been in previous years then Australia should be able to bat out the match. But I think England should win the third and fifth Tests at Perth and Sydney. The only way I can see Australia fighting back in the series is if Ricky Ponting clicks and makes a big contribution as a batsman, simply because he is capable of scoring a lot of runs in a little time. That would leave his team with plenty of overs to try to work through this solid English batting unit. That is an outside possibility.

Writing in the Guardian, Mike Selvey says that the Adelaide win was the most complete performance by an England team in the memory of those who witnessed it.

From first over to last, they dominated proceedings, first with ball and in the field, and then with bat. If there were those who felt that England might have peaked too early in the warm-ups, then now it can be seen that they had not got beyond base camp. The only question is how to sustain it.

And again, in the Guardian, Andy Bull says these are strange times for anyone who has followed the fortunes of the two Ashes teams these past 20 years, almost a role-reversal.

The keynote contribution to Australia's calamitous start to the series has been made not by the players but by the management and, in particular, the selectors. Such selectorial confusion used to be the bane of English cricket. It seems the Australians have now acquired the habit. There are a host of good players and strong personalities in the Australia team. But they are being undermined by their shambolic mismanagement

Jonathan Agnew in BBC Sport ranks England's victory as one of the greatest wins he has seen overseas. Australia, on the other had, he says, are in complete disarray.

Australia's chairman of selectors Andrew Hilditch is under immense pressure. Its seems they have no long-term plans, judging by their depleted reserves of talent, and the Australian media want answers. This saga will run and run. There have even been calls for the return of Shane Warne and it is all demoralising for the hosts.

Steve James in the Daily Telegraph,says that for a change it is Australia who are at the receiving end, as they weren't just beaten, they were smashed at Adelaide. Whatever happens in the coming weeks, the Australians have lost their aura.

The strange thing, though, is not just that the 24 years of hurt since England last won an Ashes series Down Under may be about to end. It is the way that the roles have been reversed. In response to my gag, the gateman just shrugged his shoulders. Negativity, it seems, is at last entering the Australian sporting psyche.

Writing in the same newspaper, Shane Warne says it is crunch time for Australia. Time for them to take some hard decisions about all aspects of their game.

They need to work out a way of getting 20 wickets and they need to find a leader of the attack. Who is that? No one springs to mind at the moment, but making inroads into that top order is crucial and something that has been absent from this current side.

Derek Pringle, in the Daily Telegraph, says Ashes series have cost more England captains their jobs than any other but it could be time for Australia to suffer the same indignity after Ricky Ponting oversaw the country’s biggest defeat to England at the Adelaide Oval in 118 years.

The days of plenty have gone for Australia and while Ponting, 35, has long claimed to have enjoyed the challenge of fashioning a new empire, he is fast heading for his third Ashes defeat and nobody survives that. Whether he calls time on himself or is pushed by the selectors rather depends on whether they think there is an able deputy ready to cope with the heft of an Ashes series and the expectations that brings especially on home soil

Stephen Brenkley in the Independent, asks if this is the worst Australian side ever.

Where they go from an innings defeat on a flat pitch after winning a key toss only they can decide, assuming their selectors are capable of deciding anything. But it is a jolt to the notion of the strength of Australia's first class cricket.

Australia look broken, writes Lawrence Booth in the Daily Mail, and the disparity between the two sides has caught even the more optimistic Englishmen by surprise.

Only three Australians – Hussey, Haddin and Shane Watson – have held their end up. England have not a single player out of form, and were even able to take Stuart Broad’s series-ending injury in their stride: after all, Chris Tremlett, the man expected to take his place in Perth, would stroll into this Australia team

Nasser Hussain, in the same newspaper, says that while there has been talk about how bad Australia have been, it should not take away from the credit that England deserve because they have been outstanding.

As long as England keep their feet on the ground, and I am sure they will under Andy Flower, then there is no limit to what they can achieve. It is definitely one of the best England sides I have seen and there is no reason why they cannot become the best team in the world.

Back to BBCSport and Justin Langer says that one of the reasons behind England's success was that that various players stood up and performed when the pressure was on.

Rarely did it come down to one superstar, but rather a group of players complementing each other and coming good when then team needed it the most. Because of this the great teams become intimidating because the opposition know they have to knock out all 11 opponents rather than just one or two of the best individuals.

The rain came, but too late to save Australia in Adelaide. They wouldn't have deserved an escape after being out-played from first ball to last by an inspired England performance. After the efforts of James Anderson, Alastair Cook and Kevin Pietersen it was Graeme Swann's turn to take centre stage with 5 for 91 on the final morning. But everywhere you looked for Australia there were problems, and in the Sydney Morning Herald Jamie Pandaram says it's time to face up to some harsh truths.

Selection chairman Andrew Hilditch and his off-siders Greg Chappell, David Boon and Jamie Cox must have greater faith than Mother Teresa if they think the same band of players who have been tried can beat England twice this summer. The middle order has its performers - Michael Hussey and Michael Clarke - but Marcus North and Ponting are pale comparisons of their best form. North does not look out of touch when he bats, but continually manages to fall short of big and important innings when they are most needed. Steve Smith is a young and capable replacement who thrives on pressure, a logical replacement.

In the same paper, Peter Roebuck is fulsome in his praise of England but says there's still hope for Australia if that act quickly.

Let's give the victors their due. If England is the fourth best side in the world as the rankings insist, then the top three must be playing well. For 10 days the Poms have resembled a well-oiled machine. Their intensity has been unflagging, their fitness superb, their catching sharp, their batting powerful and their bowling incisive.

In the Courier Mail Robert Craddock says Australia have slumped a new low but it might be what the games needs. The chance to take a long, hard look at itself.

Even if this Ashes Test and series goes the way we think it will, then Australians should not despair. Sometimes a serious kick up the backside can do far more good than harm. Losing the Ashes in 2005 was one of the best things that happened to Australia in recent times. It prompted a full review of Australia's coaching system and how the team prepared, and as a consequence Australia stampeded the world for the next two years

It may sound like a slightly more tongue-in-cheek view, but Peter Fitzsimons suggestion of a recall for Shane Warne is one made by quite a few Australians.

Who ya gonna call? Not Ghostbusters. Why not Shane Warne? Oh, do stop carrying on. Yes, yes, I know he's 41. I know he's caused more ugly tabloid headlines than Paris Hilton. I know he hasn't bowled a ball in anger since April. I know all that. Don't lecture me. I didn't write the book on criticising Warne, but I intend to. None of that is important right now. What is important is to save the Ashes and beat England.

Over in the Australian, Malcolm Conn, who is never afraid of a bit of Pommie bashing, thinks Australia have sunk as low as the 1980s before Allan Border started the rebuilding job.

The last time Australia lost four Tests out of five without a victory was 26 years ago, when the once mighty West Indies hammered Australia in six successive Tests during 1984 which led to the tearful resignation of skipper Kim Hughes. The Australians had been gutted by the retirement of a number of senior players including Greg Chappell, Dennis Lillee and Rod Marsh in the summer of 1982-1983.

Back in the SMH, Richard Hinds doesn't pull any punches in his assessment of Australia's performance.

Australia, of course, should not be disappointed by their dismal performance in Adelaide against an abundantly talented English line-up. They should be chastened, humiliated and utterly sick to the stomach

The first-ever western regional tournament for college cricket teams, including squads from the University of Southern California; California State University, Long Beach, and the University of California, Davis was held at Woodley Park in Lake Balboa over the weekend. According to a report in the Daily News, the organisers believe such intercollegiate contests - among clubs dominated by Indian and Pakistani students - are the best way to build cricket's popularity in the United States.

Twenty20 is the sped-up version of the sport in which games last about three hours, more palatable to Americans than the oft-joked-about five-day format of international matches.

How the Australian media are reacting © Herald Sun

After another day of England dominance in Adelaide, Australia's best chance of heading to Perth 0-0 seemed to rest with the poor weather forecast. The last session of the third day was washed out and rain is predicted to play a significant role in the next 48 hours. However, that can't mask some major problems for the home side after Kevin Pietersen moved to a double century and England reached 4 for 551, meaning they have posted more than 1000 runs for five wickets in their last two innings. In the Age Greg Baum sees the balance of power change after many years.

It was the disposition of a country in denial. England beat Australia 18 months ago, arrived here with a higher ranking and better recent form and, after a hesitant start in Brisbane, have tyrannised Australia in the last six days of this series. In the white noise of 365-days-a-year cricket, this shift in power has been lost. Forcibly, England have reannounced it. When England were at their abject worst a decade ago, they consoled themselves by showing endless repeats of their improbable win at Headingley in 1981. Now Australia has resorted to screening on continuous loop Shane Warne's audacious con job on England here four years ago. For Australia just now, yesterday cannot come too soon.

Robert Craddock in the Herald Sun faces the harsh reality that things are going to get worse before they get better.

There is no short-term fix for ailing Australia. There is not a single player outside the Test team who would make a serious difference to the Ashes series. Everyone worth a game has been given a game. You may have noticed that the chatter about fringe players died down, as it should have, after England beat Australia's second XI by 10 wickets in Hobart, despite resting its frontline attack.

Meanwhile, Kevin Mitchell Jr, the groundsman at the Gabba, rubs salt in Australia's wounds by saying it's the bowling to blame rather than flat pitches.

''Over the years, you've had the likes of Warne and McGrath, and if you've got some handy bowlers with blokes like that they're going to dominate.In the last few years the Aussies have been on top and they get big scores, it's just turned around a little bit where the visitors have got the big scores instead.''

In the Sydney Morning Herald, Darren Berry has a close look at how Ricky Ponting and Michael Clarke have been worked over by James Anderson.

England planned well for this series and Ponting would have been the No.1 focus. Anderson is the perfect bowler to knock Ponting over before he is set. He is not express but deceptively nippy and has the ability to lure good players to lunge at him. He is happy to pitch the ball up and invite batsmen to drive. This is unusual as most modern day opening bowlers bang it into the wicket and push the batsmen back. Anderson is all class and at the top of his game.

How lost do the Black Caps look in ODIs right now? Well lost, and miles from finding their way, writes Mark Richardson in the Herald on Sunday.

ODI play is all about confidence and finding a team formula that works. It is about getting players in the right positions, settling on a game plan, rehearsing it with success, growing to believe in it - and ultimately winning more often than not. Right now, they seem to have no idea. Watching them bat last evening was painful. Ugly and dumb dismissals, really dumb dismissals, to go with a total lack of batting initiative.

Before Tamim Iqbal, a procession of wickets was guaranteed. But for the last two years, Bangladesh have been given a good start with the bat. This year in particular, Tamim has scored 837 runs at an average of nearly 60 in Tests. More than the runs, Tamim has added a much-needed stability. He spoke to Mohammad Isam for the Daily Star.

What was your favourite innings this year?
In terms of memory, it was Lord's. I heard about the place and its history from my father and the moment I went inside the dressing-room I looked at the honours board and the balcony. Pete (the Lord's dressing-room attendant) told me that I would get a hundred after I made 53 in the first innings. When I reached 97, I was as nervous as I was in my debut game. But I had planned the celebration when I was in the 80s (laughs). That hundred made me very happy.

But if you consider from a batting point of view, it has to be the one at Old Trafford as it is the fastest and most difficult wicket in England. Funnily, Kevin Pietersen commented during my 86 in Chittagong that, "Cricket is so easy for you, right? You go to Old Trafford, then you will see." And I went on to get a hundred there, so it was really fantastic.

Day two belonged almost entirely to England as Alastair Cook led the batting with another 'herculean' innings after Andrew Strauss's early departure. Steve James paid tribute to the left-handed opener in The Telegraph, suggesting his back-to-basics approach was the key to his rejuvenation at the top of the order.

Cook can be a contradiction at times. He does not appear especially athletic. Sprinting does not come naturally. Indeed, Graeme Swann jokingly likens his style to that of 'Woody’ in Toy Story. His throwing arm is not strong. But he does endurance like Paula Radcliffe. He still looked as fresh as mint at stumps, even though he admitted: “At tea I was quite tired”. And he had only used one pair of gloves all day. When it was 37 degrees centigrade in the shade!

In The Guardian, Vic Marks chose to focus on the supremacy of England's fielding on a day that Australia let three clear chances slip through their grasp. Richard Halsall, England's fielding coach, has given the team the edge over Australia in a department that had hitherto been seen as a traditional weakness of English touring sides.

It was never thus. For decades the pattern was clear. On the vast expanses of unforgiving Australian Test grounds England tourists have been exposed as unathletic, slow and, quite frequently, old. By contrast, the Australians have been fast, slick and young. England were always second best in the field. They aren't any more.

In the same newspaper, David Hopps paid tribute to Jonathan Trott's contributions to England's Ashes contests and provided a fascinating insight into the thought process and technique of the man who now shares Herbert Sutcliffe's record for the highest average by an English Test batsman.

Trott logs life, analyses it for solutions, occasionally looks baffled by it. He thinks like he bats: in straight lines. Ask him how he has a Test average of 60.73 and he will probably frown slightly and explain that you simply divide the runs scored by the number of times out. England cricket fans have learned to love him. He would be the sort of practical neighbour you need; the one who appears in a thick winter coat to clear snow from your drive, the one who even keeps his own stock of rock salt.

In The Independent on Sunday, James Lawton also chose to focus on Trott's "quest for perfection", and in the same newspaper Bob Willis gives his own opinion on Cook's batting renaissance.

The biggest difference to me, though, is the way Cook is bending his front knee when he plays forward. That was a real problem for him when he had that thin trot of form – he was playing with a stiff front leg and either creating the opportunity of being bowled through the gateor getting his bat too far away from that front pad and giving the wicketkeeper and slips catching practice.

Australia endured another tough day at the Adelaide Oval as England reached 2 for 317 on the back of another hundred for Alastair Cook. Temperatures hit the high 30s and it was tough work for the bowlers, who weren't always backed up by their fielders. Jesse Hogan says they are mistakes this Australian team can ill afford.

In Brisbane, Trott was twice dropped by Michael Clarke, on 34 and 75, on the way to an unbeaten 135. Clarke deserved credit for getting a hand to the first chance at point, but the second, at slip, should have been a cinch for any international cricketer. Yesterday, Trott was on three and at least a metre short of his ground when Xavier Doherty's throw from square-leg went well wide of the stumps. He then offered a chance to Mike Hussey at gully when on 10.

In the Age, Peter Roebuck looks at Xavier Doherty's difficult start to Test cricket and doesn't feel he's the right spinner for Australia.

Doherty has also been handicapped by curious field placements. At times the Australians strain too far to accommodate different batsmen, setting pre-ordained fields designed to exploit technical flaws. It looks clever and everyone goes gaga when it succeeds but it is contrived and can put the bowler off his game. As often as not it's wiser to back the flinger by letting him focus on his skills and not on the strengths and weaknesses of his opponents.

Over in the Herald Sun, Richard Earle says Australia need somebody to stand up and be the leader of the attack.

Fans remember how Dennis Lillee would storm to the crease with unrivalled ferocity and followed through with missiles of rare quality - men lifted in his presence. Lillee would pass the baton to Craig McDermott - a typical fiery red-head who was forced to take on the might of West Indies side at the peak of its power in the 1980s and early 1990s. Glenn McGrath succeeded an injured McDermott on Australia's watershed, victorious 1995 Test tour of the West Indies and never looked back

The second Test in Adelaide got off to an incredible start as Australia sank to 3 for 2 before hauling themselves to 245. James Anderson was outstanding and Graeme Swann offered fine support, while the hosts' main bright spot was Mike Hussey's 93. However, it was another day of major concerns for Australia with ducks for Ricky Ponting and Michael. Marcus North also struggled, and he was the subject of Jesse Hogan's piece in the Sydney Morning Herald.

Arriving at 4-96 is hardly ideal for a batsman, but it is a long way from the 3-2 that Mike Hussey saw on the scoreboard when he was thrust into the middle in the third over of the day. The gap between how Hussey and North responded was stark. In the 21 times North has arrived at the crease with the score above 150, his average is 54.79. With a record like that, North would have been invaluable in the formidable Australian teams of earlier this decade. But not in this team.

Before play all the talk was about Australia's selection as they dumped Ben Hilfenhaus along with Mitchell Johnson. In The Australian, Malcolm Conn looks at the selectors' new ruthless streak.

Harris, a former local before moving to Queensland three years ago, has 37 wickets in 10 Shield games at an average of 28 in Adelaide, while Hilfenhaus has a highly respectable 16 wickets from three Shield matches at 31. So the decision was made on instinct. As Ponting said the day before the match, Harris is quicker, hits the pitch harder and can bowl reverse swing in Adelaide. And his heavily bandaged right knee is now apparently fine too. What a package

England, though, had a day to remember and in his Daily Telegraph blog Steve James suggests it could be one of their best ever.

One of England’s best days in Ashes cricket. It’s as simple as that. To lose the toss in Adelaide and bowl Australia out for just 245 is a stunning effort. And it was nothing less than they deserved. They were quite magnificent from the moment Jonathan Trott ran out Simon Katich from the day’s fourth ball. Then Ricky Ponting went first ball, and Michael Clarke followed soon afterwards. In a trice Australia were 2-3, or 3-2 as they say down here.

David Leggat, in the New Zealand Herald, writes on what to expect from the HRV Cup, New Zealand's domestic Twenty20 competition, this year. The domestic Twenty20 tournament is into its sixth year and will, this time, feature foreign players. Leggat also writes of their possible impact on the tournament.

Associations have two elements to consider: do they want marquee names who could put bums on seats, but with no certainty of stellar form; or do they want to succeed even if it's done with imports short on star quality, but capable of producing a solid return?

As the second Ashes Test approaches most of the talk centres around the two bowling attacks and how they will get 20 wickets on what is likely to be a batting paradise at Adelaide. Both sides managed just 11 wickets at the Gabba, but the feeling was that Australia were the team with more concerns and they've already dropped Mitchell Johnson. In the Daily Mail, Nasser Hussain says the hosts need to be ready for more toil and they key will be finding some reverse swing.

You need a certain type of seamer who reverse-swings it with a low arm and bowls stump to stump. Matthew Hoggard, for instance, got seven wickets here four years ago. You can get uneven bounce towards the end of the match but generally the ball just sits up and asks to be hit here if the taller bowlers bang it in short, something Stuart Broad and Steven Finn must be aware of. They need to kiss the pitch instead, keeping it low and moving it in to the batsmen

However, the fitness of England's shouldn't be a concern despite the workload of back-to-back because of the work of the back-room staff which includes fitness coach Huw Bevan. Steve James looks at his vital role in the Daily Telegraph.

Some might think that, such are the demands of back-to-back Tests (there are just three days rest between the Tests in Brisbane and Adelaide), it might be best that the players did nothing. “Yes, these back-to-back Tests are very difficult,” says Bevan, “but often if you do nothing you feel worse than if you do some work. We were just blowing some cobwebs away.”

Meanwhile, Graeme Swann has made his latest video diary and it's another must-see. Especially when James Anderson makes a cameo appearance. Check out the ECB website.

In the Sydney Morning Herald, Stuart Clark analyses the problems with Mitchell Johnson, who is in danger of being dropped for the second Test.

I can recall talking to him during a practice match at Northampton in 2009 where he was trying to regain some confidence but the self-doubt was consuming him. Only wickets will banish the demons from within. I am not sure leaving Mitch out of the Adelaide Test is the best option at present, but I can guarantee you that a selector coming out and stating that he is on borrowed time will help.

Stephen Brenkley writes in the Independent that the best thing for the series, though not necessarily the most likely, would be a spicy pitch in Adelaide.

The last thing Test cricket needs in a world of Twenty20 is a series of draws that are virtually pre-determined. The Adelaide Oval, where the second Test starts on Friday, has a reputation for being flat rivalled only by X Factor participants.

And Simon Barnes of the Times casts his mind back to Adelaide four years ago, where England lost the Test despite posting 6 for 551 in the first innings.

I remember the England supporters walking silently through the Adelaide streets. I snatched a solitary meal between bouts of frenzied writing, the other restaurant tables full of England followers managing the occasional hoarse and reluctant guffaw. I remember queueing for the plane the next morning; all the English journos had the thousand-yard stare of Vietnam vets. It was as if we had witnessed the most horrific car accident.