Now it's sunk in...

Almost a week has passed now and a question remains: how did England win the Ashes?

All the stats suggest that Australia were the better side, as did much of the televisual evidence. But they weren't that much better than England and, at key moments, were worse. Just. But when England were bad - Cardiff for all bar the last session and Headingley - they were abysmal. So while the celebrations were far more muted than four years ago, there was good reason other than that Trafalgar Square nonsense was toe-curlingly embarrassing.

Has it erased any memory of the drubbing handed out last time in Australia? Of course not, even if Sky TV airbrushed it completely from history, but times have changed and Australia suddenly find themselves down from first to fourth in the Test rankings. South Africa assume the top spot and where are England next? Yep, South Africa, so four of the top six should feel right at home as England start life AF - After Fred.

It's to the shorter forms of the game now, with two Twenty20s and seven (why?) one-dayers. England warmed up by being characteristically useless against Ireland while Australia belted Scotland all over Edinburgh. These 50-over matches come just after the ECB decided that 50-over cricket isn't for the likes of them, reducing the one domestic 50-over competition - the FP Trophy - to a 40-over format. Great planning. Presumably that'll be to prepare cricketers for the international 40-over game. Which doesn't exist.