Buchanan brushes aside comparison to Ashes

Australia's coach, John Buchanan, has scotched suggestions that today's match between Australia and England would give an insight into the teams' prospects for next summer's Ashes series. There has been a familiar sense of optimism surging through England's ranks, thanks to their recent successes in Tests and one-dayers, but Buchanan is not getting caught up in the hype, saying that this match was only a fleeting moment.

"I'm not convinced about that," Buchanan told AAP, when asked if the match was an indication of the future. "It's a snapshot in time. It makes a statement about this particular match. Nothing else. There's a lot of time before the Ashes series, a lot of change will happen to both teams between now and then. I don't think this game will have any bearing."

But Duncan Fletcher looked at it differently. He believed English cricket was changing, and that the team had a pretty good chance of putting one over Australia. "This is probably the best opportunity we've had in a long time to topple the Aussies," Fletcher said to the Evening Standard. "Winning the World Cup and the Ashes would be the ultimate dream. Any decent coach would tell you the same thing.

"But something special is happening in English cricket. We really do want to become the best side in the world."

It was a thought mirrored by Darren Gough, who added that neither victory nor defeat could hide the fact tht England had improved. "I don't think we have to beat them to know that England have progressed in both forms of the game. We have a good one-day side and the Test side is playing some excellent cricket, but we'll only get a true test of how close the sides are when they play against each other in a five-Test series.

"Even when I'm not playing I want England to beat them. It's always going to be that way," said Gough. "There will come a time when England beat Australia all the time and the Aussies will be thinking the same."