Passion for cricket can't be manufactured

Successful teams in sport are those where the whole is far greater than the sum of the individual parts.

In cricket, each player is but one piece in the puzzle. How well each of these 11 pieces interconnects with each other will determine the fate of the side.

The players should know the game and playing idiosyncrancies of their team mates inside out.

Who are the good and not so good runners between wickets? Who has a good throwing arm? Who should field where? Who should bowl at which end of the ground? What field should you have for each bowler, given who the batsman is? How many overs can you give the bowler before you relieve him?

Steve Waugh and his Australian side know the answers to all these questions whilst Nasser Hussain and his side are just getting to learn each other's names. There is no way you can begin to dissect the opposition and understand their strengths and weaknesses until you first know your own side well.

Australia has the advantage in that their players have been together for a long time now. The side is incredibly stable. Over the last 12 months, Australia has played in 12 Tests and used just 14 players. In the corresponding period, England played 16 games and used 22 players.

Taking a bigger time frame, the contrast becomes more stark. Over the last three years, Australia played 34 times and engaged the services of 21 players. Over the same period, England played 40 Tests and used 37 players.

The familiarity of the Australians for each other is breeding contempt for English cricket. They can play on the insecurity of the Englishman who are playing more for their own career than for the side. England are not a close-knit unit like Australia is.

This is nothing new. Australia and England both started playing Test Cricket on the same day with England using 612 players in this time to Australia's 384. England has had 32 more Test Captains than Australia.

England last won the Ashes in 1986/87 when they defeated Australia 2-1. You would have thought England would have built the nucleus of a successful team to come around this side. The opposite occurred with some of those players being rarely sighted afterwards.

Chris Broad was a revelation on the tour. He scored centuries in three consecutive Tests, but only played in 15 more Tests after the Ashes series due to supposed discipline problems. Disillusioned, he joined the 1989 rebel tour.

Jack Richards was an unknown when picked for the Ashes tour. After scoring a duck on debut at the Gabba, he defiantly fought back in the second Test at the WACA to score 133 and share in a sixth-wicket 207 run stand with David Gower. After playing in all five Tests of the Ashes, Richards only played three more Tests.

There is a huge chasm in culture between the two sides. There always has been. Australia grooms players in the hope they will have a long and fruitful career.

When England toured Australia, they infamously lost two limited-overs game to the Australian Cricket Academy. The Academy side featured players of the future like Corey Richards, Brad Hodge, Ian Harvey and Ryan Campbell. You can visibly see the progression with Australian cricketers as they are picked for the various state and national youth sides, followed by their state and finally for their country.

With only 66 first-class players in Australia, competition is fierce among players to retain their spots. Consequently, the Pura Cup is the best breeding place in the world for would-be Test cricketers.

England chop and change their team with alarming regularity and that can not be good for team morale. On the other hand, what alarms Australia is dropping more than one player per game for fear of it disrupting team unity.

Just the absence of Mark Waugh alone can be felt. The slips cordon had to change as did the batting order and Australia lost a handy part-time bowler.

Australia has learnt from the experience when Greg Chappell, Dennis Lillee and Rod Marsh all retired together.

Retirements are now staggered to prevent too much upheaval in the team and in recent times, the team has benefited from having ready-made replacements for stalwarts such as Ian Healy and Mark Taylor.

Appointing Rod Marsh is a step in the right direction for the English but maybe the reason for the standard of their cricket dropping off and their failure to produce a world-class player in the last 20 years is because they don't care as much about the game as they used to. You can't manufacture passion.