It's not cricket

England national cricket coach Duncan Fletcher falls on his sword in the wake of the diabolical World Cup campaign in the West Indies. In stark contrast, Yorkshire's XI go mad in Surrey where they batter the hosts with a blistering spree of runs as Jacques, Adil, Tim and Jase' wield the willow with exterminating dexterity.

But while the Tykes might have embarked on the season with the sort of gusto that seems to be the infectious preserve of new skipper Darren Gough, nationally England awaits a brave new world after its global collapse in the Caribbean.

And it's not without a little irony that while Gough swaggers into his first season as Tykes captain, one of his predecessor's, Michael Vaughan, will be carefully looking over his shoulders to see if the blades of disappointment are not aimed squarely at the middle of his shoulder blades.

Fletcher's exit was the least the national game expected in spite of his exemplary record at reviving England as a Test-playing force culminating in that exuberant conquest of the Ashes in the summer of 2005.

But it appears that his ultimate triumph was the apex which was then dismantled by celebrity and a false belief in their own inflated publicity.

True England did best the Australians to finally get a hand on that previous little urn. But it is equally correct that but for a few key incidents the prized possession could well have stayed in Antipodean hands.

How the nation rejoiced. How our flannelled favourites celebrated. Perhaps too much party, party, methinks.

For, in essence, England have not progressed since those halcyon 2005 days - they have regressed. Australia, true to their national anthem, instead advanced so fair dinkum as to since destroy all the opposition set before them.

Not for them skulking away, drowning their sorrows as opposed to their conquerors frequently toasting their success with visits to Buck Pal among other glitzy distractions as the pernicious hand of celebrity squeezed its deadening grip.

No the Aussies re-grouped, re-discovered their zest and thoroughly rehabilitated themselves to become the masters of the cricket universe both at Test and one-day levels.

Purists back in Blighty still sniffily pooh-pooh the one-day game as not proper' cricket. But the Aussies have shown that you can be the best at both codes and that excelling at one need not be at the exclusion of the other. Rather, it can be a perfect partnership, though England would not know a partnership of they fell upon on judging by the lamentable World Cup performances.

Now they truly need a stand. Someone in tandem with Vaughan, or maybe someone in tandem with Vaughan as the Test captain while another player comes in to lead the one-day team. The Australians followed that same suit with current skipper Ricky Ponting the one-day leader before assuming charge at Test level. Way to go, England, way to go.