Salute Australia They've been magnificent, it hurts to watch three heavy stuffings handed out to the English boys but you can't take anything away from the Australian team, they have excelled in every area of the game and have played wonderful, ruthless, beautiful cricket. I love the Australians attitude, sure they're cocky, even arrogant, but they are the best team in the world and they can afford to be. I like sportsmen to have the self belief of boxers, that surety and determination, and Australia have that and the skills to match, well done. What lies ahead for England then ? The possiblility of a series whitewash is definitely on the cards, and an orgy of public bloodletting spearheaded by the likes of Boycott is a given. But let's not castigate this team , they have played as well as they could, it's just that they have lost to a better team, to listen to some of our pundits an ex-players you would think that the England team have tried to lose on purpose. I know Boycott (and others) get paid for their opinions, but on occasion their opinions have strayed into the realm of belittlement and personal attacks, this isn't the way to talk in public about the team. Perhaps we should have played more games in the run up to the Ashes, the Australians played more cricket over here last year before the previous series. Perhaps the team selection should have been different, but we still lost the 3rd Test with Panesar and Mahmood in the side, would Reed have made the difference, I don't think so. England's side was weakened by the loss of two world class batsman, Vaughan and Trescothick, and of course our bowling was without Simon Jones, but you still can't use this as an excuse, Australia were brilliant. On the plus side, and there is one, Panesar bowled well, Pieterson continues to bat well as does Collingwood and Bell, Strauss' figures would be better but he's been on the wrong end of a couple of bad decisions (and a couple of self inflicted awful hooks), Hoggard continues to be Mr. Dependable, Flintoff has been ok, fair with the ball, he's had better months with the bat but he will return to better form. Will we do any better in the Triangular series, I doubt it, and I don't think we'll fare much better in the World Cup, by that time we might just have played too much cricket, the boys will have spent months away from home, if they make it to the tri-series final they might just get a ten days or so back home with their wives and families before setting off to the West Indies. It isn't all bad news, sure we've been hammered by a tremendous team, but India and Sri Lanka are not looking to next years tours of England and thinking they are going to have an easy time over here, quite the reverse, back at home, with the home crowds cheering them on, England will be rejuvenated and on fire, it could be a hot English summer for the visitors.