Maintaining the strength in depth to cope with injury crises is as crucial for the management of a top-class team as it is difficult to master, writes William James.

The recent experience of England’s rugby team is testament to this after being forced to pick a squad without twelve regular members.

Similarly just 10 games into soccer’s Premier League season, managers of the big four clubs have been forced to field reserves. Liverpool handed big-game debuts to Daniel Ayala and Jay Spearing, while injuries forced Arsenal to thrust goalkeeper Vito Mannone into the Champions League spotlight.

The challenge for any team is to keep a pool of talent bubbling underneath the first team that is both able and experienced enough to step up to the next level. Teams invest vast amounts into scouting young talent, but experience is harder to buy.

Managing the gulf between the first team and the reserves is key to ensuring the consistency that brings league titles and secures international trophies. What this soccer season has shown already is that this issue warrants much greater attention.

Second-string teams competing in football’s reserve leagues are given over largely to youth and those returning from injury, while more senior players lose match sharpness bench-sitting for the first team.

The loan deals that provide young players with the experience to slot back into first team action are too inflexible to work; lower-league sides demand season-long loans and control over players.

The result is young talent floundering in reserve leagues or stranded out on loan without a route back to their parent club when first-team opportunities arise.

At international level the balance of reserve squads is again tipped in the favour of youth to the detriment of the senior game. Despite England’s rugby team missing over twelve players through injury, only three of the replacements that have been announced were drawn from the England Saxons, the notional reserve team.

The less said about football’s England B team the better; without fixtures or a defined role it has been supplanted entirely by the Under-21 setup.

The standard of domestic cricket is often derided, but the sport is the best British example of a functioning reserve system working hand in hand with the national team.

England Lions, the squad below the test team, gave Jonathan Trott the chance to step up and perform on a stage that propelled him into the senior team for the final Ashes test. At the age of 28 he had the right mixture of experience and ability, and seized the chance he was given to perform.

Graham Onions is another who, aged 26, successfully made the transition earlier this year.

Forcing youngsters to sink or swim under the gaze of the world’s television cameras is rarely successful and often damaging to both the player and the team.

Those determining the structure of national and domestic squads should take note; youth and talent is essential in the long term, but so is managing a pool of players beneath the first team who are ready to contribute when needed.

England’s Jonathan Trott celebrates reaching his century against Australia during the fifth Ashes cricket test match at the Oval in London August 22, 2009. REUTERS/Philip Brown

Well, cricket’s Champions Trophy is over and we’ve learned some new things while some age-old truths remain, namely number 1 in my list.

1. Australia are the best one-day side
If ever there was any doubt, the Aussies reaffirmed their power by beating New Zealand in Monday’s final. Their key asset is strength in depth. This time it was Shane Watson who won the game with a century but it could so easily have been someone else with bat or ball. Tim Paine impressed.

New Zealand missed injured captain Daniel Vettori badly while other sides are too reliant on one or two players. Graeme Smith did his utmost for South Africa but the hosts went out early and crowds understandably suffered.

2. A shorter tournament format works better
After the long, long World Cup in the West Indies in 2007, administrators may finally have cottoned on to the fact that cricket fans want short, sharp tournaments. South Africa was a success because of two groups of four, two semis and a final.

3. Playing on just two grounds is a good idea, but careful with those pitches
Shuttling between Centurion and the Wanderers cut travel times and costs for players and fans alike but alternating all the wickets was tough and some skippers moaned about their quality. How much does it matter in one-day cricket?

4. England play better when not under pressure
Two shock wins for England at the start of the tournament when everyone expected them to lose. As soon as people started talking about a surprise triumph, they fell away.

5. West Indies dispute might never end
Cricket needs West Indies to be at least able to win one in five games but there seems to be little chance of that at the moment with the contract dispute still raging and top players not competing.

A resolution is needed soon to save part of cricket’s wonderful history.

Before I was based here in Italy, I reported on quite a lot of cricket including the 2004 Champions Trophy and the 2007 World Cup.

Being out here, where Italian friends often confuse cricket with hockey or golf, means I completely missed the start of this year’s Champions Trophy.

It passed me by mainly because it is a very incongruous tournament — a bit like soccer’s Confederations Cup. It has all the big teams but pales in comparison with the World Cup and after a few weeks you often can’t remember the winner. 

With the success of Twenty20, many in the blogosphere had questioned whether the 50-over Champions Trophy should be scrapped altogether. What’s the point in having a 50-over World Cup, a 50-over Champions Trophy and a T20 World Cup?

With cricket having only eight top international teams, there is little to distinguish the Champions Trophy amid a general overload of one-day cricket.

So far, however, the first half of the Champions Trophy in South Africa (after the competition was switched from Pakistan on security grounds) seems to have been a roaring success.

The best thing about it is the format. Very simple and not a Super Six, Super Eight or minnow in sight. Two groups of four which each team playing three matches before the semis and a final.

Although island-hopping in the West Indies in 2007 was fun (even on little propeller planes), the World Cup just lasted far too long with too many pointless matches — especially as we all knew Australia would win anyway.

If England (who amazingly have won their first two matches) or Australia make the Champions Trophy final they will have played less games than in their recent ODI series where the Aussies won 6-1.

Another great feature of the Champions Trophy is that they are using only two grounds — Centurion and the Wanderers in Johannesburg.

This limits the travelling and cost for fans and teams with the groundsmen the only people who need to get stressed having to prepare alternate pitches every other day.

The results have also been far from predictable with England flourishing, powerful hosts South Africa being knocked out and Pakistan beating India.

Perhaps the death of the Champions Trophy was greatly exaggerated.

PHOTO: England’s Owais Shah plays a shot during their surprise Champions Trophy win against South Africa at Centurion, Sept. 27, 2009. REUTERS/Mike Hutchings

England qualified for three of the first five World Cup finals and should have emerged with at least one trophy.

Yet their last appearance came in 1992 and they are now the only member of the top eight test-playing countries who have never won a major one-day title.

Their latest bid seems doomed before it starts. England lost a meaningless one-day series 6-1 to Australia on Sunday and caught a flight to South Africa for the Champions Trophy the following day.

Asked about his team’s prospects in South Africa with such a quick turnaround, captain Andrew Strauss muttered something about turning things around on the plane.

Turning the plane around might have been the better option although Strauss, at least, emerged from a dismal one-day series in credit after leading England to victory in the Ashes.

The mere fact, though, that Strauss was consistently England’s best batsman against Australia says everything about the current state of the international one-day team.

Strauss, effective enough during the powerplay overs with the fielding restrictions in place, is no more adept than his colleagues at accelerating during the middle overs, falling twice to attempted reverse sweeps against Australia. His captaincy is also strictly conventional.

England’s problem is the lack of either the big hitters produced regularly by Australia and South Africa or the virtuosos from the Indian sub-continent who consistently invent new ways of scoring.

England’s leading one-day batsman Kevin Pietersen, currently unavailable through injury, was brought up in South Africa. Marcus Trescothick, their best home-grown one-day batsman and an uncomplicated thumper of the new ball, no longer plays international cricket.

In their absence, the England selectors have been forced to shuffle an increasingly thin pack of cards, handicapped by the early deadline for naming the Champions Trophy squad. Jonathan Trott’s century on test debut at the Oval came too late to win a return to his native South Africa.

Ravi Bopara disappointed in the one-day series after failing in the Ashes, Owais Shah regressed and Matt Prior was shunted around the order to little profit. Even Paul Collingwood, who made his name as an all-rounder in limited overs cricket, may be coming to the end of the road, although in common with his team mates he was clearly suffering from a surfeit of cricket.

Add to this mix, some one-paced bowling and indifferent fielding and England’s sixth place in the international rankings looks entirely justifed. It will be a surprise if they move any higher as a result of the Champions Trophy.

PHOTO: England’s Luke Wright watches the ball hit the stumps after safely getting back in his ground during the first Natwest Series one day cricket international match against Australia at the Oval, London September 4, 2009. REUTERS/Philip Brown

Italian soccer club AC Milan played the famous music from the Champions League in their dressing room on Sunday to try to motivate the players. The only thing was they weren’t playing in the Champions League — it was a domestic match at home to Bologna.

Milan have stuttered in Italy for a few years now but they won the Champions League, Europe’s top club trophy, in 2007 and had produced a good performance to beat Olympique Marseille in the same competition the previous week.

Club bosses decided that making the players hear the Champions League music even for a domestic game would give them the same battling mentality they show in Europe. They won 1-0.

What other strange motivational tunes are played in dressing rooms across the sporting world?

Unconventional English soccer club Wimbledon, known as the ‘Crazy Gang’, used to play heavy metal before matches in the late 1980s and early 90s.

The English cricket team run out to the hymn Jerusalem when playing at home while when David Lloyd was coach at the end of the last decade, he made the players listen to Winston Churchill speeches to gee them up. It didn’t always work.

NFL’s Cincinnati Bengals often play Guns n Roses’ ‘Welcome to the Jungle’ in the stadium to get the crowd excited.

Of course there are lots of tunes especially used at sports stadiums, like Queen’s ‘We are the Champions’ and Blur’s ‘Song 2′. What’s your favourite?

PHOTO: Clarence Seedorf celebrates after scoring in AC Milan’s 1-0 home win over Bologna in Serie A, Sept. 20 The hosts had listened to the Champions League tune to motivate themselves ahead of the match. REUTERS/Stefano Rellandini

In an echo of Australia’s futile craving for a new Bradman for at least a decade after he retired, England cricket yearned in vain for another Ian Botham.

Derek Pringle, David Capel and Phil DeFreitas were hailed as potential successors while the all-rounder was still playing in the 1980s. The unsought weight of expectation then fell on Chris Lewis and Dominic Cork.

Although Pringle and DeFreitas developed into decent international bowlers and Cork was a better player than either, the comparisons were invalid and unfair.

The quest by public and media persisted, culminating in the initially unlikely figure of Andrew Flintoff, who lumbered on to the international scene overweight and underprepared in 1998.

To his credit Flintoff absorbed harsh words from people whose opinion he respected, trimmed down, trained hard and became an essential component of the England side.

For two glorious years, in 2004 and the transcendent Ashes series of the following English season, Flintoff matched Botham at his best, scoring 1,607 runs at 40.16 and capturing 111 wickets at 24.94.

As a commanding middle-order batsman and intimidating fast bowler, Flintoff would have held a spot in a strong England side with distinction in either role.

And yet when Flintoff retired after England’s triumphal Ashes win last month, his battered body no longer able to stand up to the demands of five-day cricket, his overall figures were not those of an exceptional performer. In 79 tests he averaged 31.77 with the bat and conceded 32.78 with the ball compared to Botham’s 33.54 with the bat and 28.40 with the ball.

One rough measure of a true all-rounder is a player who averages more than 30 with the bat and less than 30 with the ball. Then the gap between batting and bowling averages comes into play. By the latter measure, Flintoff has a minus figure of 1.01 compared to Botham’s plus 5.14.

As CLR James wrote when comparing Bradman’s performances on bad pitches to the superior prowess in similar conditions of Jamaican George Headley, a monument need not be built on statistics. Over a test career, though, they do provide a yardstick by which players of different eras can be compared in the form of the game which all cricketers agreed is the ultimate challenge.

Botham is indelibly linked in the English popular imagination with the 1981 Ashes series. His impact was magnified by the gloom pervading the nation before the sun finally broke over an England mired in recession and plagued by inner city riots.

To this day, to the exasperation of Australians visitors, a rain break during an Ashes test in England is the signal for another television replay of Botham’s heroics in the 1981 Headingley test.

But Botham’s overall figures are nothing startling.

Botham’s 15-year test career divides conveniently into two sectors; the five years dating from his debut in 1977 and the 10 starting with the 1982-3 Ashes series in Australia.

During the first Botham averaged 37.92 with the bat with 11 centuries and took 249 wickets at 23.32. The second yielded a batting average of 29.00 while his wickets cost 37.84.

The young Botham before injury, increased weight and the distractions of a celebrity lifestyle took their toll was a splendid player whose figures are remarkably similar to Keith Miller and Imran Khan, two other glamorous fast bowling all-rounders.

From 1982-3 onwards Botham was still capable of sporadic brilliance but not of consistent excellence.

England’s best all-round cricketer, with a respectful nod in the direction of Wilfred Rhodes, the doyen of left-arm orthodox spin who started his test career batting at number 11 and worked his way up to number one, was South African-born Tony Greig.

Greig averaged a healthy 40.43 with the bat and took 141 wickets at 32.20 mostly at medium-pace. He scored test centuries in Australia against the pace and fury of Dennis Lillee and Jeff Thomson, in India against the wiles of Bishen Bedi and in the Caribbean against the menace of Andy Roberts.

His bowling figures also included 13 wickets with off-spin delivered from a great height to win a test in West Indies.

As a bold, brash, attacking captain Greig revived an England side, who had been blitzed by Lillee and Thomson in Australia, winning a series in India and extending the Australians to the limit in the centenary test.

He lost the England captaincy because of his active role in setting up the Packer rebel series and remained in Australia when peace was declared with the establishment, confirming the prejudices of those who thought a South African should never have captained England in the first place.

If Botham has been unduly lionised, Greig has been unfairly overlooked.

Cricket is, of course, more than just statistics as England proved this year when they trailed Australia in just about every conceivable individual and team measure but still won back the Ashes.

Richard Hadlee, a player of comparable status to Imran in New Zealand, was obsessive about statistical goals but still reckoned match-winning performances were the true mark of an all-rounder.

Botham scored 14 test centuries and captured five wickets in an innings 27 times and even in decline he could still win test matches.

On his final tour of Australia in 1986/7 he scored a swaggering century in Brisbane and, bowling barely medium-pace, took five wickets in an innings in Melbourne. England won both matches and took the series 2-1.

By the end of this year’s Ashes series, Flintoff was hobbling like an old man.

He still rolled back the years to win the Lord’s test with a ferocious display of high-class fast bowling and waited until the Oval before effecting his first runout in a test. Flintoff hurled down the stumps with captain Ricky Ponting short of his ground in Australia’s second innings when the Australians sensed they had an outside chance of completing a record run chase.

“I’ve never achieved greatness,” Flintoff reflected the day after England won the Ashes. “The Bothams, the (Garfield) Sobers, Imran Khans and (Sachin) Tendulkars achieved greatness test after test after test. But I’ve been in a team that has performed well and I’m sat here feeling proud.”

Flintoff was too modest. Overall he was not a great cricketer. But he won matches and for two heady seasons in the prime of his sporting life he at the very least touched greatness.

PHOTO: Andrew Flintoff celebrates taking the wicket of Ricky Ponting of Australia with a runout throw during the fifth Ashes test at The Oval in London, August 23, 2009. REUTERS/Toby Melville

In the wake of England’s Ashes triumph over Australia, a huge question awaits…can England find a replacement for Andrew Flintoff?

He has been the scourge of the opposition for so long. His importance was underlined in this series where despite being half-fit he managed to knock over the tourists at Lord’s to claim five wickets and even ran out Australian captain Ricky Ponting at the Oval (which he said on Monday was probably the first time he’s ever run somebody out).

Flintoff (79 tests, 3,845 runs, 226 wickets) has been the heartbeat of the England team over the past five years and his departure will leave a gaping hole in the setup.

Nevertheless, the biggest mistake England and the media could make would be to conduct a search for the ‘next Andrew Flintoff’.

The previous talisman for England, Ian Botham (102, 5,200, 383), retired in 1992 and immediately a number of all-rounders were built up as the ‘next Ian Botham’, much to the ire of former England captain Michael Atherton back in 2001.

Phil Defreitas, Chris Lewis, Craig White and Dominic Cork came and went in the 90s, but not until Flintoff made his debut in 1998 did England recognise a potential player in the ilk of Botham.

However, not until 2004 did Flintoff really begin displaying match-winning prowess with both bat and ball, and at his peak in the 2005 Ashes series the Englishman was an unstoppable force.

Let this be a lesson of caution to those who expect a ready-made replacement.

Stuart Broad (767 runs and 64 wickets from 22 tests) has caught the eye in the last two tests, but let’s not forget he was ineffective in the first three matches of the series and has yet to prove durability with the bat and enough variety with the ball to trouble world class batsmen.

The good news is he is only 23, and should be kept in the side to build up confidence ahead of the 2010-11 Ashes series in Australia.

Graeme Swann, while not a paceman and by no means a spring chicken, is another vital cog with bat and ball in this current England team and will be key for future tours to Asia where turning pitches are the norm.

On the fringe of the setup are 21-year-old spinner Adil Rashid and seamer Tim Bresnan, both competent with a piece of willow in their hands though on current form , Rashid should get the nod ahead of Bresnan and may figure for England’s four-test tour to the number one-ranked test side South Africa from November-January.

The 2-1 Ashes result left the Australians scratching their heads and the home supporters happy as larry, but there is plenty of work left to do for this current England side. A patient approach would be the best one.

PHOTO: Andrew Flintoff of England celebrates taking the wicket of Ricky Ponting of Australia with a runout throw during the fifth Ashes test cricket match at The Oval in London August 23, 2009. REUTERS/Toby Melville

Having been privileged to be sitting a few metres from the finishing line as Usain Bolt shattered his own 100 and 200m world records in Berlin - and having also witnessed his double in Beijing, I got to wondering where those performances ranked in my personal bag of live events.

So, here is my list of contenders, followed by my podium. I’ve included only events I have attended in a professional capacity as a sports reporter as memories of some others I’ve enjoyed as a “punter” might be clouded by beer.

In chronological order:
—-
Jonathan Edwards soars in the triple jump, 1995 world championships, Gothenburg
OK, it was “only” the triple jump but the entire stadium was looking at Edwards when he set off down the runway for his opening jump. He seemed to defy gravity as he sailed 18.16 metres to become the first man to legally break the 18-metre mark. Twenty minutes later he went even further with 18.29 - a record that still stands.
—-
England beat Netherlands 4-1 in Euro 96, Wembley
The moment when Terry Venables’ side really looked as if they were going to deliver a big prize after “30 years of hurt.” England’s best display for decades tore the Dutch to shreds as the Alan Shearer/Teddy Sheringham strike force suggested that football really was coming home. It all went wrong in the semi-finals with a penalties defeat by Germany.
—-
Michael Johnson completes 400 metres/200 metres double, 1996 Atlanta Olympics
The organisers re-arranged the programme so Johnson could have a crack at the unusual double and he did not disappoint, taking both titles with crushing displays. When he posed by the scoreboard showing a world record 19.32 seconds for the 200, clutching his golden spikes, it seemed his bizarre upright style might re-write the rules of running. Then came Bolt.
—-
Zidane scores twice to lead France to victory in 1998 World Cup final
Zidane had bestrode France’s bumpy journey to the final on home soil and though not renowned as a great header it was him who twice connected with corners to set up the emotional 3-0 win over Brazil. It earned his country the trophy for the first time and injected some much-needed fresh blood to a tournament so dominated by Brazil, Argentina, Germany and Italy.
—-
Australia come back from the dead to win 1999 cricket World Cup semi-final on last ball
Australia were down and out midway through their semi-final against South Africa but through the bowling of Shane Warne and the sheer willpower of captain Steve Waugh, they got back into the game.

Even so, South Africa got to the last four balls needing one run to reach the final. That was when last pair Lance Klusener and Alan Donald had a collective panic attack and the Australians, calm, ordered and organised ran out Donald to secure a tie that sent them through on the basis of their Super Six record.

Wisden described it as the greatest-ever one-day international and Australia went on to beat Pakistan in the final.
—-
Tiger Woods tames St Andrews in 2000 British Open
Woods went into the Open as a huge favourite but his display on the most famous course in golf stunned even his biggest fans.

During four days he guided his ball round the links course with such precision that had he walked it and placed the ball with his hand he would have been hard-pressed to improve his situation. He avoided every bunker on the course, on every round — when the best of the rest were coming to grief on a regular basis — and finished 19-under par to win by eight shots. Rarely since the days of Don Bradman could one sportsman be so far ahead of the rest of the pack.
—-

Wilkinson wins rugby World Cup for England with extra-time drop goal, Sydney 2003
A superb England side should have had the game wrapped up in normal time and again in extra-time but Australia kept pegging them back with penalties.
  
In the last minute of extra-time they set up and perfectly executed a lineout followed by a break by Matt Dawson. Captain Martin Johnson, showing the clearest of thinking in the most pressurised moment of his career, took the ball closer to allow scrumhalf Matt Dawson to resume his position.

One pass to Wilkinson who, on his wrong foot, dropped the goal that won the trophy for England for the first time.
—-
Czech Republic 3, Netherlands 2. Euro 2004 group game, Aveiro, Portugal
Probably not a match that most people would think of when asked for memorable clashes but this makes my list simply by being the best game of football I have ever seen.
   
The Czechs came from 2-0 down to win 3-2 with an 88th-minute winner from Vladimir Smicer and qualify for the quarter-finals.

The bare numbers, however, cannot begin to do justice to a match that both sides played with a total commitment to attack. They hammered the woodwork continually, forced both goalkeepers into endless saves, had no time for faking injuries or diving as they were all too busy trying to set up the next attack.

It is no exaggeration to say it could have been 8-8. A reminder why, when played like this, soccer is the sport that dominates the world.
—-
Bolt dances across the line to win Olympic 100 metres in world record time, Beijing, 2008
It was supposed to be a three-way showdown between Bolt, Asafa Powell and Tyson Gay but it turned into an extraordinary one-man show.

Bolt flew down the track and, knowing the race was his 20 metres out, crossed the line thumping his chest in celebration. And yet he still broke the world record.
  
He followed up with victory in the 200, going all out for the line this time to break Michael Johnson’s “untouchable” world mark in the process, then rounded it off with a third gold and third world record in the 4×100 relay. After years of destruction by dopers, athletics had the hero it so desperately needed.
—-
South Africa secure series win over the Lions with last-minute 53-metre penalty, Pretoria 2009
It was not so much the iron nerve of 21-year-old Morne Steyn as he landed the penalty from within his own half to win the second test that made this special, but the entire match.

Trailing 1-0 in the series, the Lions delivered one of the most ferocious, aggressive displays seen in modern rugby to charge into what should have been an unassailable lead. World champions South Africa reeled, retreated, dug in and fought back.

For 80 minutes the two teams hammered at each other on and off the ball with staggering hits. Five Lions and three Springboks ended up in hospital.

The scores were level until local hero Steyn, on as a replacement, settled it.
—-
Bolt does it again at world championships, Berlin 2009
Sprint world records are supposed to be nudged and nibbled but not once, but twice, Bolt took enormous 11 hundredths of a second chunks from his own marks with two astonishing runs on the iconic blue track of the Berlin Olympic Stadium.

It took me a long time to take in the “7″ when Ben Johnson first posted 9.79 in the Seoul Olympics. Bolt’s 9.69 from Beijing was still settling into memory banks a year on and suddenly the scoreboard was reading 9.58. It had to be impossible but I’d witnessed it with my own eyes, from about 10 yards to his right. I’m still not sure I believe it.

Four days later he did it again. 19.19 for the 200 metres. Running the bend, from a standing start, in 9.92 and the straight in 9.27.
   
For good measure he again topped it off with a relay gold, but had to settle for only the second-fastest time ever.
—-
So, the podium. It’s a tough one. For variety I’m not going to award Bolt two medals, he’s got enough already.

Bronze: The 1999 cricket World Cup semi-final. It had everything — a massive turnaround in fortunes, unbearable tension and victory for the team who kept their heads under crushing pressure — thanks to the leadership of one of the all-time great captains from any sport - Steve Waugh.

Silver: Jonny’s last-minute drop goal. Pure, unscriptable drama yet, as with the cricket, the extraordinary was built by doing the ordinary under pressure. Wilkinson takes the medal but, as he is always the first to acknowledge, the team’s the thing.

Gold: It has to be Bolt. But though I never thought I’d live to see someone run the 100 metres in 9.6something, let alone 5something, it is his Beijing display that is my fondest memory.

It is the Olympics, the pinnacle of sport and the 100 metres is the pinnacle of the Olympics. You just don’t win it laughing, dancing, celebrating, in a stunning world record.
  
But Bolt did, I know he did, I watched it and I’ll never forget it until the day I die.

PHOTO 1: Usain Bolt of Jamaica (2nd R) crosses the finish line ahead of Wallace Spearmon of the U.S (R) and Alonso Edward of Panama (2nd L) to win the men’s 200 metres during the world athletics championships at the Olympic stadium in Berlin August 20, 2009. Bolt won the race in a time of 19.19 seconds to set a new world record. REUTERS/Tobias Schwarz

PHOTO 2: England’s 2003 Rugby World Cup player Jonny Wilkinson holds up his MBE (Member of the Order of the British Empire) award after being presented with it by Britain’s Queen Elizabeth at Buckingham Palace in London, December 10, 2003. REUTERS

England have regained the Ashes after beating Australia by 197 runs at the Oval to seal a 2-1 series victory.

How important was Andrew Flintoff’s run out of Ricky Ponting when the Australia captain looked well set? Flintoff did little with bat or ball in his last test before retiring but still made sure he grabbed the headlines.

Australia put up the fight that everyone expected but England were always likely to grind out the win.

So probably not as exciting or as skilful as the 2005 series, but much more competitive than Australia’s whitewash win last time. The series probably pivoted on Monty Panesar’s defiant batting in the first test in Cardiff.

Where will this series rank and did the result reflect the strength of the two sides?

PHOTO 1: Andrew Strauss of England celebrates winning the Ashes against Australia with the traditional urn trophy after their fifth Ashes test cricket match at the Oval in London August 23, 2009. REUTERS/Toby Melville

PHOTO 2: Ricky Ponting of Australia is run out by a direct throw from Andrew Flintoff. REUTERS/Toby Melville

Thunderous rain and the unrelenting inclement conditions are threatening to turn the third Ashes test into a washout rather than the pivotal point of a see-sawing series it should be.

The third day was abandoned without a ball being bowled in anger.

I’ve seen less water at the world swimming championships than I have at Edgbaston, where the best part of two days out of three have been lost so far.

And there we were in May bemoaning the early scheduling of the test series against West Indies. Cold to the point of frostbite yes, but no days were lost to rain.

You have to feel for the ground staff who have been ploughing relentlessly back and forth over the Edgbaston pitch in an attempt to get the surface fit for test match cricket, only for the rains to come rolling through like a bad joke to spoil their efforts.

Whereas heavy rain on day one was followed by sunshine and gusty winds, aiding the drying of the outfield, the overhead conditions on day three only added to the ground staff’s, players’ and fans’ torment.

Frustration will be felt most in the England camp, who will have thought they held the upper hand following a second day which they dominated from start to finish with both bat and ball, and for Andrew Strauss, stranded two-thirds towards another Ashes century.

Australia may look on Saturday as a gift from the Gods that could enable them to escape a potentially damaging defeat. But they can use what time there is left in the game to put some real pressure on the English batsmen and attempt to locate the form and luck of bowler Mitchell Johnson.

With all this time lost, exactly what do players do during rain breaks?

Rather than eating and sleeping like most players, former Middlesex captain Ed Smith wrote books while ex-England spinner Phil Edmonds used the time to build a business empire to which he eventually retired.

Expect more time to be lost on Sunday as the groundsmen continue the clean-up operation. If the weather is good, I would think a start at around 1 or 2 pm is most likely, given the amount of rain to have fallen already, but will there be enough time left to force a result?

PHOTO: Ground staff work on the outfield after the third Ashes cricket test match between England and Australia was abandoned because of rain at Edgbaston in Birmingham, central England August 1, 2009. REUTERS/Darren Staples