THE art of winning is something that frequently eludes our national players.

You name it, England blows it - rugby league, football, even rugby union are in on the collapsing act now after their World Cup-winning heroics were dealt a jarring grand slam back in the northern hemisphere.

But in the guffawing stakes few have endured as many jibes and taunts as the England cricket team.

Under a succession of skippers - Gower, Botham, Gooch, Atherton and Hussain - the national white-flannelled flag has hardly fluttered with pride. The odd match here and there has been pilfered, some deserved in cases as rare as rocking-horse droppings. But more often than not it's been a white standard of surrender sheepishly raised above the balcony.

No more. England cricket now has a sheen of success about it.

The Caribbean conquest confirmed in Barbados with the Third Test win - a hat-trick as memorable as the bowling triple treat for Yorkshire's Matthew Hoggard, which, together with Graham Thorpe's magnificent unbeaten ton, turned the Test in England's favour - has been as emphatic as it has been largely unexpected.

True, the opposition does not boast anywhere near the same calibre as that of previous power-drenched West Indies hosts. Their bowling attack is less experienced than that at the disposal of England skipper Michael Vaughan and once talismanic willow-wielder Brian Lara departs, the batting is brittle.

But you can only beat what is stood on guard or on run-up in front of you. And England have accomplished that hands-down and handsomely too.

The new England is one that embodies team ethic in the manner of Sir Clive Woodward's rugby union champions. For that a huge debt is owed coach Duncan Fletcher. Often castigated, Fletcher has helped to shape an England team that is not embarrassed to win and to win well.

Witness the ruthless way in which in all three Tests - when push came down to shove - Vaughan's vanguard applied the good old heave-ho with all hands to the task.

Fletcher's revolution could not have been achieved without an able lieutenant out in the middle. The combative Nasser Hussain took up the baton, or rather bat, and set a committed tone, which has since been improved upon by the quietly impressive Vaughan.

It says much about the new skipper, and the man he succeeded, that rather than jettison the former captain, Vaughan's belief in his own authority has enabled him to be only too glad to call on the experience of the have-a-go Hussain.

Of course, the acid test for any team with pretensions of ruling the cricketing world is to depose Australia.

For more than a decade now they have been the team to beat. It's not false to say either that the current crop of Aussies have been the best team of any sport in the world. When the clamp-down needs to be enforced the wizards of Oz do it without hesitation or mercy.

If England are to emulate such gin-trap gusto then they need to further humble the West Indies in the fourth and final test starting in Antigua on Friday.

That would indicate they are ready to take on the best and when the Antipodean encounter finally comes around in 2005 then the Vaughan-spree ranks will be another year battle-hardened. Ashes to Blighty - here's wishing.

M AND M. Not a sweet treat, not a rap beat, but the FA Cup final of 2004 in which Manchester United will square up to Millwall.

Now, if you believe the true faith that spews out of the respective Old Trafford and New Den bases of the protagonists then they are the most hated clubs in the country. If that's the case perhaps the final should be played behind closed doors, let alone with the roof entombing Cardiff's magnificent Millennium Stadium.

Then again, the likelihood of a spat between rival bosses Sir Alex Ferguson and Dennis Wise, or captains Roy Keane and Kevin Muscat, could provide the biggest spectacle yet seen since the FA Cup's temporary transfer to the Principality.

One thing's for sure - given the fan-base of both finalists the streets of London should be pretty vacant on May 22.

Updated: 10:11 Tuesday, April 06, 2004