England settle after summer of storms

The defining moments of the international season came in a couple of text messages. Well, it has been a dreadfully wet summer and we are all slaves of the mobile phone now, western Vic Marks in the Observer.

On Sunday 3 August, the day after the Edgbaston Test, this appeared: 'Michael Vaughan will be giving a press conference at Loughborough today at 1pm.' The moment we received that we all knew he was going, but he had taken us by surprise. The text received at 10.15am on Friday 18 July at Headingley seemed even more prosaic. The ECB kindly deliver the final XI to our mobile phones on the morning of a Test match a few minutes before the toss. This particular message seemed routine enough until we alighted upon the name of Darren Pattinson. Both these texts suggested an England regime in disarray, with no idea which direction to take.

In the Independent on Sunday, Stephen Brenkley looks ahead to August 2009 and says that "Kevin Pietersen raising above his head a small urn on the boundary at The Oval" is a possible scenario.