The ECB National Academy

If they were right when they said the Battle of Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton, then why should the battle to regain the Ashes not start at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst?

That was where the first intake to the new England and Wales Cricket Board's National Academy gathered with the coaching staff specially appointed to attend to their needs. This was before setting off to Adelaide for a winter of preparation and playing to ensure that England will be able to compete with Australia and everyone else within the next five years or so. They patently failed to do so in the 2001 Ashes series.

Of course, there were hopes that there would be bricks and mortar in place for the academy to be based in England from the outset. However, planning problems at the first choice of venue - Bisham Abbey near Marlow on the banks of the Thames - proved insurmountable in time, and so, like migrating birds, the bright young hopes of English cricket are heading south for the winter.

It makes a lot of sense. There are far more opportunities to get meaningful cricket preparation completed in Adelaide in January than in Buckinghamshire at the same time of year. And anyway, the newly appointed head coach, Rod Marsh, knows a thing or two about the conditions and facilities available in Adelaide, having been based there in a similar position with the much-vaunted Australian Academy for the past 11 years.

He is looking forward to a new challenge. Speaking at Sandhurst, he said, "I've been very privileged to have had 11 years with the academy in Australia and I feel very privileged to be given the opportunity to start this one. It's a real challenge, one I'm looking forward to and one I'll give my heart and soul to."

This is a different Rod Marsh to the typical Australian wicket-keeper who gave opponents such a torrid time in his playing days. "When you're out of the game, winning doesn't seem nearly as important as it once did. It now seems more important that the game develops and goes forward."

Supported by assistant coach John Abrahams and manager Nigel Laughton, as well as a team of physiotherapists, physiologists and visiting coaches, there is no doubt that this will be a well-prepared body of men, as befits any team coming out of Sandhurst.

It is certainly something to which the ECB Performance Director, Hugh Morris, attaches a great deal of importance. "It's taken a long time to get this off the blocks, but now I think we have a very robust programme, some talented cricketers and I think we've got a fantastic coaching staff. I'm very excited about the future."

It is a future in which Morris wants to see the products of the academy quickly come into the reckoning for England places. "What we're looking to do is produce 95% of the academy players in the England team by 2007. It's hugely ambitious, but it's something we want to try to aim for. This is the pinnacle of our development programme, so it is a key plank in our strategy if we are to achieve our goals."

The chairman of the ECB, Lord MacLaurin, has no doubts about the prospects. "We've got a nucleus here of some quite outstanding young cricketers and if half of them go on to play for England, it will be great. Rod Marsh has produced a whole string of really excellent cricketers from the Australian Academy - probably some of the best players we've seen in the past decade, and to have him running our academy is amazing."

The players, too, are excited at the prospect of joining the new venture. For some like Lancashire leg-spinner Chris Schofield, it is a chance to get back into the top flight of the English game after experiencing Test cricket very early in his career.

"Unfortunately I did not progress as I would have liked to have done after playing two Test matches. But this has shown that England are still interested in my art. Hopefully I can develop it to the full and become a regular Test player in the next year or so.

"I can only think it's going to be fantastic for me to develop leg-spin as I work out over this winter - working on fitness, mental fitness, smoothing out my action, working on my batting."

Northamptonshire off-spinning all-rounder Graeme Swann has also been close to the top. Fast-tracked from the Under 19s through the A team and into a full Test touring party, he also sees the academy as another chance. "I feel I did not accelerate as quickly as I might have done after my first couple of seasons and that's what I'm looking forward to doing now. I think I plateaued after the early burst but I feel ready now to really kick on and go to the next step.

"I'm going to treat it like a finishing school. I'm going to lap up all the coaching I get out there, all the way of life, fitness and everything. I want to develop as a cricketer and come back hoping for Test cricket."

Mark Waugh, the Warwickshire opening batsman who scored a triple century in a CricInfo Championship match at Lord's last season, began his first-class career with Oxford University and has already experienced life in the Zimbabwe Academy. He views this new venture with great excitement.

"It's a huge honour and to be one of the first guys to go out with Rod Marsh to Adelaide is one of the best things to have happened to me in my cricket career. It's a superb opportunity. Ultimately, the bottom line is to return in March a better player than I am now. It will be a huge learning experience and hopefully it will be something I'll look back on with pride. "

Everyone concerned with this ambitious project will be subscribing to those same sentiments. If everyone can look back on it with pride, it will be because it has been successful. England will have produced a crop of young players to match the best in the world. With just a little bit of help from Australia.