A full tour of England really should yield more than two wins against invitation XIs and a solitary ODI. After three months of being comprehensively outplayed in most contests with a team they beat only last summer, the England circus returns home minus a head coach, their best spinner and most reliable batsman and a whole bunch of reputations.
The international results read Australia 12 England 1, and the 1 was slightly tarnished by the weakened opposition. Having established moral and physical supremacy by the end of the Sydney Test, the Aussies could safely rotate their squad throughout their ODI and T20 matches and still come out on top. Pity Joe Root and Ben Stokes. They played in the first game and they were still there at the death. Meanwhile, Andy Flower quit, Graeme Swann retired, Jonathan Trott flew home with a form of depression and Alastair Cook is contemplating his navel on his farm.
Hopefully the new boys from Yorkshire and Durham have time and energy on their side, and can have a little relaxation before the West Indies tour, presuming both are picked. Interestingly, the man with the most runs across the entire tour in all formats was Michael Carberry, accumulating 656 in 10 matches. In all, England fielded 29 players and only Cook, Bel,l and Root joined Carberry with mor ethan 500 runs under their belts. With the ball, only Stuart Broad (36 wickets in 13 games) and Stokes again (26 in 12) emerged with much credit from the whole business.
So what next? There's the Caribbean one-day tour, IPL and thoughts of the T20 World Cup which can only get in the way of England getting their proper cricket back in order. I just hope that the Test certainties and probables don't let the dollar signs blind themselves to restoring their psychological wellbeing and first-class technique and skills. It was reassuring to read of James Anderson's determination to re-establish himself with Lancashire and I would love to think the early Championship fixtures offer ideal opportunities for the likes of Cook, Bell, Finn, Prior and, yes, Onions to produce the sorts of performances that brought them to international recognition in the first place.
As for the next head coach, who knows? Ashle Giles remains the bookies' favourite, despite his dreadful record with the ODI and T20 squads this winter and his allegiance to the set-up which took England to the heights and depths of the past year or two. CricInfo mentions Nottinghamshire coach Mick Newell as his closest rival. Experience as successful Lions tour coach in 2011 is a plus, but he is no fan of Kevin Pietersen, whose total lack of team ethic was first demonstrated at Trent Bridge. Hopefully that won't count against him as KP should not be allowed to choose the coach. If he refuses to play then let him go: leave your England badge and locker key on the desk and please close the door behind you.
Gary Kirsten and Tom Moody have excellent reputations both domestically as well as internationally, as players and coaches. The South African steered Indian to the Test No. 1 position and World Cup then, to cap it all, led his home nation to the top of the tree as well. Top players speak highly of him. However, he has placed family life ahead of cricket and I can't see Paul Downton appointing a part-timer unless he can persuade Kirsten to focus on the essentials of 82-page dietary profiles and ruining the actions of the country's brightest young bowlers.
So there are no obvious candidates for Giles to worry about. If he and his team can remind their charges of the talent and ability they already have and showed in the past three or four seasons, then his job is done. But if Flower wasn't considered the man to do it, why should Giles be any better qualified? Let's see how Downton does in his first test.
