Cricket: The real reason for Australia's demise

SYDNEY - Everyone has an opinion on how the Australians lost the Ashes.

Some, like former Australian paceman Dennis Lillee, blame Ricky Ponting's captaincy.

Others blame Shane Warne for dropping English dynamo Kevin Pietersen before he went on to blast a series-securing 158 at the Oval this week.

Some say it was the coach's fault, or that it was due to the undeniable talents of England allrounder Andrew Flintoff.

The fatalists would say the turning point was when Glenn McGrath twisted his ankle when he trod on a ball before the second test.

All of these may have played a part.

But in the cold, hard light of hindsight the real answer is simple.

The Australians didn't take England seriously enough after 16 years of Ashes domination and didn't prepare to the same extent as the victorious hosts.

Ponting's team expected to roll up, score 400 runs or more, and rip through the opposition batsmen as they had done in virtually every series against every test-playing nation for the past decade.

And everything went to plan in the first test at Lord's before the wheels fell off (and McGrath trod on that rogue ball).

But McGrath's new-ball partner Jason Gillespie and replacement Michael Kasprowicz failed to live up to expectations.

And the batsmen, Justin Langer aside, all seemed to hit a form slump at the same time.

Despite this lack of form, Ponting said Australia had moved into potentially winning positions throughout the series but let them slip.

"The ruthless edge probably comes from those really tough, big defining moments in test matches, and that's where we didn't unfortunately stand up, for one reason or another," he said.

"Taking nothing away from England ... they've outplayed us in the tests so they thoroughly deserve to come away with the Ashes.

"It's a 2-1 loss. It's not as if we've been completely wiped off the planet, and it's not as if we have to make wholesale changes."

But England certainly outplayed and out-thought the world champions.

"They've studied us over the past three or four years ... and they've tried to make their model even better than ours, and that's probably what they've done," Ponting said.

"In saying that, we had all the resources there, all the players, all the coaches we needed, we just didn't perform on the ground."

England's pace quartet of Flintoff, Steve Harmison, Simon Jones and Matthew Hoggard was unrelenting, much the same way Australia's attack of McGrath, Warne and Gillespie had been over the years.

And Australia's batsmen did not adjust. Matthew Hayden still chased balls aggressively, Adam Gilchrist sparred at deliveries swinging away, and Damien Martyn became trapped in his crease. All three were failures.

Also, the Australians could not contain Flintoff's batting in the middle order and were often content to let the game drift.

At Trent Bridge, England teetered at 241 for five, but Flintoff and Geraint Jones were allowed singles when the field should have been moved up.

England captain Michael Vaughan did not make the same mistake, and when Australia were bowled out cheaply in the same test, he sent the tourists straight back in.

And fielding played a big part. Only once, in the first test, did Australia make England's fielders pay for a mistake.

The home side did it regularly, most notably Vaughan (third test) and Pietersen (fifth), who turned lucky survivals into big hundreds.

The fielding errors and wickets on no-balls were soul-destroying for Australia.

Despite the obvious problems, Ponting wants to keep basically the same team for the upcoming Super Series against the World XI next month, including his place as leader.

"Hopefully, I will keep the job. I absolutely love every opportunity I have to captain Australia," he said. "It's one of the best jobs in world sport.

"I don't see any changes at all before our next test."

Ponting said he was not concerned by comments from Lillee calling for him to be sacked as skipper in favour of Warne.

"As long as I'm doing the right thing by everyone in my dressing room, as a team and the coaching staff, that's all I can do," he said.

"I know that I'm not going to keep everybody happy along the way."

Coach John Buchanan and Ponting plan to review all parts of the team structure, and Buchanan said his position deserved to be in question.

His role was criticised by the likes of Ian Chappell, Michael Slater and Lillee.

Although confident a "silver lining" will emerge, Buchanan said, "It's pretty obvious changes are needed in a whole range of things.

"I'm keen to continue, but I'm part of the mix as well", he said.

"Everything has to be reviewed. Success or non-success, you're always trying to work out how you can improve things.

"So my position should not be exempt from that, just the same as everybody else in Cricket Australia at the same time.

"I think there should be some very good things that come out of this tour.

"I believe there's some real silver linings in among what seems to be a bit of doom and gloom over the past four tests."

No sweeping changes are expected when the national selectors next week announce the test and one-day squads for the Super Series, which will also give a view to their thinking for the coming tours by the West Indies and South Africa.

Gillespie and Kasprowicz are in most danger of having their international careers ended, but Martyn and Hayden are expected to be named.

Ponting's vice-captain Gilchrist certainly believed there would not be too many changes, especially at the top.

"Everyone is going to have an opinion and Dennis is a long way far removed from the team," Gilchrist said of Lillee's headline-grabbing statements.

"I've got absolute confidence in the people in charge and the utmost support for Ricky.

"I'd be really disappointed if this turns into some sort of public slanging match over who should be or shouldn't be leading the team.

"Ricky has the whole team's backing, I'm certain of that."

- AAP