Stuart Broad confesses he has been part of the renaissance but also a part of the decline of English cricket.
The England team, he believes, became too entrenched, too stubborn, too hostile to outside influences. And he credits former coach Peter Moores and current director Andrew Strauss with helping themto reconnect. "We went through a period when we wouldn't speak to any of our ex-players," Broad says. "It was us versus them.
"This new open theory, started by Mooresy and with Straussy carrying it on, has helped. You go to Vaughany [Michael Vaughan] in the morning and say, 'What do you reckon here?' That can set your mind at rest. I'd played for six or seven years and never really spoken to Beefy [Ian Botham]. Now he is coming over to the team and going, 'Come on, boys, let's get this done'. We had a message from Freddie Flintoff about how lucky we are to play in these sorts of series. Those things have helped everybody to relax."
In the short term, England's relaxation has taken rather more conventional form. After a week off to recover from Trent Bridge, the squad reassembled at the Oval ahead of the fifth Ashes test. An extra day's training was scheduled, and Cook rang each member of the team personally last week to emphasise the importance of ending the series on a high.
"That's the big carrot: 4-1," Broad says. "Sitting at Trent Bridge on Saturday night, it was very much relief - we've won it, what a feeling, soak it in. But Cooky called us all on Tuesday. It was the middle of our week off, but the captain was sat on his farm thinking about it. Australia are a ruthless team when they get on top of you, and we want to have that same tag about us."
England will start as favourites, notwithstanding a dead pitch or a resurgent Australian side seeking to give outgoing captain Michael Clarke a fitting farewell. Broad has his own ideas on what might constitute a fitting farewell, having dismissed Clarke more than any other test bowler. "Like, 11 times or something," he grins. There is time yet to make it 13."
Talk of the future naturally leads to a discussion of Broad's own intentions. He was left out of the one-day side this summer but remains available for selection, with a home World Cup in 2019. "I'll be 32 when the next World Cup comes around. I certainly want to play one-day cricket going forward."
Yet whatever he goes on to achieve, you feel that the feats of 2015 have already made his legacy.
He is not preoccupied with it, but more than most athletes, he has a keen sense of how others see him. His last home Ashes series in 2013 was tainted by the controversy over his decision not to walk at Trent Bridge after edging to slip. So there was a certain satisfaction in taking eight for 15 at the same ground.
"The 2013 series was remembered for me not walking, which I thought was a little bit unfair. If I'd finished after 2013, it would have frustrated me.
"The biggest thing about the eight-for is that it probably puts that Trent Bridge memory to bed a little bit."
And when he finally, reluctantly, hangs up his boots, you get the feeling that crazy first morning will be foremost in his thoughts.
"You get those sorts of spells once in a lifetime. To do it against Australia at my home ground - it's not even a dream come true, because I'd never have dreamt I could do something like that."
