Ashes to Ashes, dust to dust

Defeated: England's obsession with the Ashes rendered all other achievements in 2006 irrelevant © Getty Images

Two humungous shadows towered over England's cricketers in 2006. The memories of their achievements in last year's unforgettable Ashes, and the knowledge that they were going to have to do it all over again at the end of this year. And given that "Ashes to Ashes" was the mantra, it's little wonder that England's prospects turned to dust.

For reasons of fame, fortune and unadulterated hype, the Ashes was all that mattered to England. That fact was betrayed by the selection progress for last month's first Test at the Gabba, when a side that had taken some time to settle but had nonetheless won three Tests in a row against Pakistan, was dismantled to allow a succession of crocked heroes to slot straight back into the line-up. It was a policy that deserved to fail, and sure enough, it did.

The upshot of their Ashes obsession was that England sleepwalked their way through an entire year's worth of competition. Just occasionally they roused themselves, winning handsomely at Edgbaston, Old Trafford and Headingley, not to mention a remarkable series-squaring triumph against India in Mumbai, but all too often they gave the impression of a side waiting for inspiration to slap them in the face. Especially in one-day cricket, more of which later.

In mitigation, England were brutally unlucky with injuries this year. In the space of a crazy 48 hours on their tour of India in February, they lost the services of their captain, Michael Vaughan, to his long-standing knee injury; their champion of reverse-swing, Simon Jones, to another - unrelated - knee problem; and most mysteriously of all, their vice-captain, Marcus Trescothick to a "stress-related illness" that would haunt him all summer and resurface upon arrival in Australia at the end of the year.

With Ashley Giles out of action as well and Andrew Flintoff destined to spend his year in and out of the operating theatre, England had lost half of their Ashes champions in one fell swoop. And yet, the accidental emergence of new heroes, such as Monty Panesar and Alastair Cook, and the blossoming of new middle-order stalwarts, Ian Bell and Paul Collingwood, meant that England 's squad had been strengthened in a way that no number of Academy trips and A tours could ever do.

Andrew Flintoff's victory at Mumbai could have been a template for further success ... if England had trusted the men at their disposal © Getty Images

England's coach, Duncan Fletcher, however, showed next to no faith in the new men at his disposal. After seven years in the job, the loyalty that had once been the most commendable aspect of his reign now became his single biggest weakness, and two selections - Giles over Panesar and Geraint Jones over Chris Read - both smacked of favouritism and wishful thinking. What little momentum England had gathered had been flung out of the window in an act of whimsy.

And that was emphatically that. A successful Ashes campaign - even a spirited failure - could have atoned for the rest of the year. But England displayed an arrogant lack of interest in any of their other challenges. Their Champions Trophy campaign, for instance, was a continuation of their one-day tour of India from earlier in the year, when they lost 5-1 and were lucky to do that well.

Australia, by contrast, used that much-maligned tournament to hone their competitive instincts, and arrived for the Ashes with a new trophy in their cabinet and their confidence brimming over. England, on the other hand, failed to reach the knock-out stages, skulked home for ten days' R & R, and turned up at the Gabba on November 23 undercooked, under-confident and with their entire year's project fatally undermined.

New man on the block
Monty Panesar. His year began with a maiden Test wicket at Nagpur - his hero, Sachin Tendulkar, no less - and ended with a third-place finish in the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Awards. In between whiles, he bowled England to victory at Old Trafford, in tandem with Steve Harmison, took eight wickets on his Ashes debut at the WACA, and became the new darling of the crowds for his exuberant celebrations and error-prone fielding. But his stick-in-the-mud coach needed rather more convincing of his talents than most of the population.

Fading star
Marcus Trescothick. Described by Nasser Hussain as "a good egg" and one of the most amenable men in the team, his descent from hero to zero was one of cricket's saddest tales of recent years. At the start of 2006 Tresco was England's captain-in-waiting, but by the end of it, he was a broken man, ground down by too many years of travelling and too many conflicting reports about his precarious state of mind. It takes a brave man, particularly a sportsman, to admit to any sort of a mental weakness. All lovers of the game hope he makes a full recovery, though few truly believe he'll ever play for England again.

High point
England's Johnny Cash-inspired victory in Mumbai. It was a glorious tale of heroism in the face of overwhelming odds, as a band of rookies, marshalled phlegmatically by Flintoff, overcame the sorts of conditions that have crushed more worldly-wise opponents. It could have been a foretaste of strategies to come - "The Gabbatoir? Pah, our kids know no fear!" but err ... it wasn't.

Low point
It's tempting to say Adelaide or the Gabba, but at least England were trying their hearts out in those matches. Instead, I'd earmark their dismal performances against Sri Lanka in June and early July - when they slumped to a complacent series-squaring slaughter against Muttiah Muralitharan at Trent Bridge, before surrendering the one-day series 5-0 with the most pathetic run of performances ever witnessed by a senior international team. The whitewash was sealed at Headingley, when Sri Lanka chased 322 with eight wickets and an absurd 12.3 overs to spare.

What does 2007 hold?
The only way is up, though probably not in the short term. Quite apart from the threat (and dare one say it, likelihood) of an Ashes whitewash in the New Year Test at Sydney, England have a World Cup campaign to be getting on with in the next few months - and given that they don't even know who their captain is yet, the omens are not especially good. But come the start of a new Test season in May, it will be time to look to the future, with the likes of Pietersen, Cook, Bell and Panesar firmly ensconsed in England's battle-plans. Moreover, there's no Ashes campaign to worry about for two-and-a-half years. Thank God for that.