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from Left field:

Ponting’s success blighted by Ashes defeats

Respected but seldom loved at home, admired but also reviled abroad, Ricky Ponting led Australia to great success but his captaincy will ultimately be defined by three lost Ashes series. The tough, single-minded Tasmanian always put the team first and that, he said, had prompted him to stand down after nine years in charge of the Australia one-day team and seven as test skipper on Tuesday.

The most test (48) and one-day international (164) wins by any captain as well as successive World Cup triumphs in 2003 and 2007 is an impressive record by any standards, and there has never been any doubt about his quality as a batsman.

And yet, ever since he took over a world-beating side from Steve Waugh, there has always been a question mark hovering over his captaincy.

His honeymoon period as test captain lasted little over a year until he blotted his copy book with the ultimate sin for an Australian captain, the loss of an Ashes series to England.

Ponting silenced the critics the following year, however, leading from the front with a Player of the Series performance to help Australia regain the urn 5-0, the first Ashes whitewash in 86 years.

The retirement of greats like Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath, Adam Gilchrist, Justin Langer and Matthew Hayden would have weakened any side, however, and so it was for Australia.

A rare home defeat to South Africa was followed by a second Ashes defeat in England in 2009 and the pressure was now weighing heavily on him again.

from Left field:

Cricket World Cup — live

Join us for coverage of the revamped Cricket World Cup on the subcontinent. Follow all the drama here with regular posts and some of the best photographs around. Comments welcome!

from Left field:

Momentum the key to World Cup success for England’s cricketers

Look away now Australian cricket fans, this one’s going to hurt like a cricket bat to the groin. Their team has carried their abject 2010 form into 2011 by slumping to another defeat to a rampant England side but this time in Twenty20 rather than tests.

While England notched up their eighth straight victory in the shortest version of cricket – a new world record –  the last ball defeat in Adelaide means Australia have now lost 17 of their last 24 completed matches in all forms of the game.

The prospect of an Australian victory at the moment appears as likely as Inzamam-ul-Haq calling for a quick single.

Australia’s major victory in that run was in the Ashes test in Perth against England to level the series at 1-1, before the Australians were destroyed like a quarter-pounder at a burger eating contest by a particularly ravenous contestant.

Three of the matches Australia have won in that time – two in the one-day series in England and one against Sri Lanka in an ODI prior to the Ashes – have come with the series already gone for the once mighty baggy greens.

But if England are to bring home their first 50-over World Cup form the sub-continent in the coming months the team must keep winning in Australia and carry the momentum through to the tournament, meanwhile trampling all over the current holders' remaining spirit like an errant infant over its parents’ freshly planted tulips.

Australia have bagged the World Cup winners trophy on the last three occasions, and while they remain ranked as the best one-day side in the world, another home one-day series defeat to England, following its pre-Ashes subsidence to Sri Lanka, will surely spell the end of their dominance in the shorter form of the game.

from Left field:

English cricket celebrates a coming of age

England's cricketers wrapped up a 3-1 series victory against Australia in Sydney on Friday and held aloft the little Ashes urn for the first time in 24 years on Australian soil.

They should enjoy the moment. It has been hard earned and a long time in coming. The taste of success will be sweet and should be savoured after so much hurt and torment at the hands of the great Australian sides of the last 20 years.

But England will do well to remember the steep fall from grace enjoyed by the national football team in 2001 after the 5-1 victory over Germany, the rugby team in 2003 after their World Cup win and their own Ashes triumph in 2005 which was followed by a 5-0 drubbing the next time.

English cricket BEWARE! “Keep off the moors. Stick to the roads,” to quote an American werewolf in London.

However, getting ahead of themselves should not be a problem for England under captain Andrew Strauss and coach Andy Flower, who are well-versed in keeping a level head.

Witness the way they bounced back from the third test defeat in Perth and made sure they finished off the series in style in Sydney despite having secured the urn in Melbourne.

England have youth on their side as well. Whereas the 2005 vintage side were at their pinnacle, this team should just be starting a golden period of form. Their vitality, enthusiasm and innocence of youth as well as an insatiable appetite for success should also help them deal with any potential setbacks, such as the retirement of Paul Collingwood.

from Left field:

Collingwood exit gives England test dilemma

The retirement of Paul Collingwood from England’s test team was beautifully timed, leaving the selectors with the dilemma of who to replace the versatile batsman but with a long time to contemplate the decision and from a pretty lofty perch.

The 34-year-old brought options with the ball and was arguably the team’s best fielder, so although he has struggled with the bat of late whoever steps into the team has some big boots to fill.

The contenders? Batsman Eoin Morgan will fancy his chances, but all rounder Tim Bresnan must be in with a shout on the back of some fine performances in the last two Ashes tests.

Also in the frame are batsmen Ravi Bopara and youthful all-rounder Adil Rashid.

The addition of an all-rounder would bring balance to the side once batsman Ian Bell and wicketkeeper Matt Prior move up a place each in the order. That would leave a tail comprising Stuart Broad, Graeme Swann, James Anderson, Chris Tremlett and then the eventual Collingwood replacement.

The counter-argument is that it would put too much pressure on the top six batsmen to score runs, and therefore an out and out batsman should slot in at number six or seven depending on Prior.

After all, while not a prolific run getter, Collingwood was resolute and stubborn at the crease and until recently was a difficult opponent to dismiss.

from Left field:

A test comeback for Warne? Australia are not that desperate

"Bowling, Shane" are not words English batsmen would want to hear ever again, but how would the Australians react to Shane Warne making an astonishing return to answer his nation's plea for help in the wake of the second test defeat to the 'Poms'?

To say Warne was England's primary Ashes tormentor for years and years is an understatement. Every time the leg spinner had the ball in his hand he had the opposition quaking, and even off the pitch he was a handful.

Combined with the equally ruthless Glenn McGrath there has rarely been a finer wicket-making machine.

Now to say the Aussie attack is struggling is another understatement. Wickets rather than runs win matches and without the firepower to strike 20 times in a test match, for the first time since the 1980s the touring side could win the Ashes down under.

Cue calls for Warne's return, even though he hasn't played test cricket in four years. The selectors would probably be lambasted if they were to pick him, although the Australian said he was flattered by the talk.

But his selection would make a mockery of the current crop of Australian spinners, Steve Smith, Xavier Doherty and Warne's tip Michael Beer, who toil away at their profession day in day out.

Imagine England overlooking seamers Chris Tremlett, Ajmal Shahzad and Tim Bresnan to fill the injured Stuart Broads's boots in favour of Andrew Flintoff, who like Warne, has retired from the game.

from Reuters Soccer Blog:

FIFA’s World Cup decision day — live

We'll be following all the presentations and the vote itself as FIFA's executive committee decides on the hosts for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.

Spain/Portugal, Russia, England and Netherlands/Belgium are the four rival bids for 2018, while Australia, South Korea, Qatar, United States and Japan battle it out for 2022, with the vote to come on Thursday.

Follow it all here live...

from Left field:

Downbeat but not out — an England fan at the Ashes

England have been in far worse positions at the end of a first Ashes test in Brisbane. Although being bowled out for 260 is far from ideal Andrew Strauss's team should believe they are still in this contest.

Having been 197 for four half an hour into the final session of the day and with the Australian bowlers barely able to hit the cut strip, England will rue the batting collapse which saw the last 6 wickets fall for just 63 runs and included a stunning hat trick from Peter Siddle.

The roar of the crowd that accompanied the hat trick and the early dismissal of Strauss was truly breathtaking and had there been a roof on the Gabba it would have been well and truly ripped off.

If there one thing that is disappointing it's that from my own experience it seems Australian fans only get interested and create a real atmosphere when their team is doing well.

I guess failure is not something they've experienced much of recently, but it would be nice to think that should England fightback on day 2 so too will Ausralian supporters.

Downbeat but not down and out, that's how England fans should be feeling. It's now time for the bowlers to do their talking and dig their team out of a hole.

David Brett is an equities reporter for Reuters, based in London. He is attending the Ashes as a fan. You can follow him here and on twitter DBsAshestrail.

from Left field:

England are confident but will the Ashes dream go up in smoke again?

With Australia's current cricket team seemingly keen on proving they can be just as hopeless as any cricket team England produced circa 1990-2000, what better time to go Down Under and watch England defend the Ashes?

I was meant to go four years ago after the epic 2005 series, only to pull out at the last minute and buy a house instead.

Funny thing is, I'd still choose a collapse in the housing market and impending financial meltdown over that soul destroying tour that in the end cost England coach Duncan Fletcher his job.

A couple of friends of mine still went and I remember a call from one of them after the horrendous collapse on the final day of the second test in Adelaide, which saw England snatch defeat from the salivating jaws of victory.

"I want to come home," my friend said. "The cricket's rubbish (or something a little bit more fruity) and the beer's watered down". Poor fellow, the Aussies even deprived the English of the one thing that could numb the pain.

This time round new captain Andrew Strauss and coach Andy Flower have kept the tub-thumping to a minimum and England fans live in hope.

My memories of Ashes tours are generally of deep disappointment and gut wrenching inevitability, with England teams travelling in not in hope of victory, but expectation of defeat.

from Left field:

Monty’s back but England Ashes hopes rest on Swann

England's commitment to a four-man attack for their Ashes defence in Australia this year has directly influenced the decision to recall left-arm spinner Monty Panesar.

Panesar and Surrey fast bowler Chris Tremlett, another recall, won the two extra bowling places at stake in the 16-man squad named at the Oval on Thursday.

England won the Ashes with a five-man attack in 2005 but, in the absence of a test class all-rounder after Andrew Flintoff's injury-induced retirement, have preferred this year to play an extra batsman.

* England will be heavily reliant on off-spinner Graeme Swann, the world's top-ranked spinner, in Australia. Swann, who gives the ball a prodigious tweak for a finger-spinner, has emerged as England's match-winner after he was called up at the end of 2008.

However, if the unthinkable happens and he is either injured or suffers a calamitous slump in form, Panesar is an obvious replacement.

Panesar lost form and confidence and has not played for England since the first Ashes test last year. He has been accused of lacking subtlety but at his best he is an excellent attacking spinner, who has taken five wickets in a test innings on eight occasions. One of these hauls was at Perth when England were whitewashed in the 2006-7 series. He is currently in good form, taking 52 wickets at 25.69 for his new county Sussex this year.

* Tremlett and Tim Bresnan will be the backups for the first choice England pace trio of James Anderson, Steven Finn and Chris Broad. Like Panesar, Tremlett has successfully switched counties, taking 48 wickets at 20.18 each for Surrey this year.