England are bridging the generation gap

On Tuesday in South London, Kevin Pietersen was in his element - getting down with the kids on a housing estate in Peckham, shooting from the hip about England's Ashes prospects, pop-star girlfriend on his arm, a posse of breakdancers at his feet and a plastic "Urban Cricket" bat in his hands. "The only rule ... is there are no rules" is the slogan of npower's new initiative to spread the gospel of the game. In Pietersen they've found a prophet who speaks their language.

In the circumstances, therefore, it was something of a surprise to hear a sigh of nostalgia emanating from the lips of Mr Progressive himself. "I don't know when the team will play together again," he said of the eleven who secured England's Ashes victories at Edgbaston and Trent Bridge, "but I do believe they will. Let's just hope by the time November 23 rocks up, we've got a full-strength team to smack the Aussies in Australia."

Optimism is one of Pietersen's most infectious character traits, but it's not often channelled in such an unfamiliar direction. More usually his words and deeds are dictated by a brash disregard for reputation, never more so than at The Oval last September, when he clobbered England to safety while his home-grown team-mates were being crushed by the weight of history.

Eight months on, however, it appears that Pietersen's outsider insouciance is beginning to fade - this latest statement sounded more English and backward-looking than any of his previous utterances.

In recent weeks there has been growing criticism - mostly from irate Indians and Pakistanis who feel their teams' efforts went under-rewarded this winter - that England are unhealthily fixated by the Ashes. There is a grain of truth in that sentiment. English fans are more naturally inclined towards nostalgia than any other set of supporters in the world, and understandably so, seeing as England is the birthplace of the game and the guardian of its traditions; in these uncertain times of fixture overload and competing global interests, it is only right to cling to those clashes that you hold most dear.

But clinging to the memory of the men who made 2005 so unique is not the same as clinging to the traditions that they fought so valiantly to uphold. English sport is a tragic litany of fulfilled dreams leading to broken teams - the rugby team has been in freefall since winning the 2003 World Cup, with Jonny Wilkinson apparently cursed by the Gods. "Botham's Ashes" provoked a 20-year digression to locate his successor, to the detriment of all involved; and let's not even get started on football's 40 years of hurt, or whatever the tally now reads.

The Ashes team may never be reunited. It's time to embrace that prospect and look to the future, rather than cast nervous glances at last summer's fading glories. The diversity of the disruptions - from Vaughan's knee to Giles' hip to Harmison's shin - combined with the inevitable onset of new heroes means there may not even be room for all of the men who were once deemed indispensable. The quest for regeneration is one of the fundamentals of sport. Why else would Pietersen have been spending Tuesday morning in Peckham?

Happily, it appears that the lessons of the past have been heeded. This morning at New Road, England's future goes head to head with the cream of the Sri Lankan tourists, in the first fixture of its type to have been played in this country. "This is the next-best XI," stressed the chairman of selectors, David Graveney, as he unveiled an England A team containing eleven genuine Test candidates. "I would be expecting these guys to impress."

The greatest irony is that the precedent for this fixture has been set by the most traditional club in the land. These days, MCC are unrecognisably progressive compared to the band of reactionaries who once represented English "interests". It was their resurrection of that historical season curtain-raiser, Champion County v MCC, that paved the way for proper representative matches outside of the Test arena. In April this season, Nottinghamshire were given a sound run for their money by a talented MCC team, led by their head of cricket, John Stephenson, but containing a host of young hopefuls. Two of the men who'll be taking on Sri Lanka today, Chris Read and Alex Loudon, both scored centuries.

Amid all these new initiatives, from Urban Cricket upwards, the pundits don't know if they are coming or going. On the one hand it's all doom and gloom, with fast bowlers dropping like flies and too much burden being placed on Andrew Flintoff's shoulders. But on the other, there's such an embarrassment of riches in England's current batting line-up that Alastair Cook and Owais Shah, who played so magnificently in the Test series in India, are unlikely to get a look-in.

Last week, Pakistan officially announced that they would be adopting a rotation system to combat the demands of an excessive international schedule. England's variation on this theme has emerged on a much more ad hoc basis, but the upshot ought to be more or less the same - an expansion of experience across a broader pool of players, and the significant advancement of both team's international fortunes.

Maybe Pietersen is right and the Ashes heroes will be reunited come November. But for the sake of the English game, and everything that lies between now and next winter, it would be infinitely preferable if the next generation makes 2006 their own.