Eoin Morgan calls on Kevin Pietersen to lead by example during England's ODI series against Australia

With Alastair Cook, Ian Bell, James Anderson, Stuart Broad and Graeme Swann all rested after a successful Ashes campaign, Morgan will lead some unfamiliar faces into battle against the tourists.

Given the lack of experience in the England line-up, Morgan has urged Pietersen to lead the way.

"Kev offers a hell of a lot as a senior player and as a batsman," Morgan said. "As a senior player he leads by example with the confidence with which he goes about his business. People rub off on that and that's crucial.

"When I first came into the team, he was one of the more senior players and he was a guy you could turn to and ask difficult questions or have no hesitation in turning to him for a positive option.

"In that regard, I think he's fantastic to have in the squad and back in for the one-day series."

Morgan stopped short of guaranteeing Pietersen the chance to open the batting against Australia in the absence of Bell and Test captain Cook, with the 33-year-old Surrey batsman's firebrand style potentially better employed futher down the order.

"It's certainly an option,” Morgan said. “Kev's opened the batting for England before and done well. He also bats in the middle-order as a very explosive player. He's very versatile in that regard so we'll be looking at both options."

Morgan said that whoever was selected to open the batting would be "filling big shoes".

"Cooky and Belly have been very successful now for a couple of years and they've been a huge part of our success as a one-day team," said the Irishman, who hit a century against Ireland in Dublin on Tuesday.

"With the two new balls in one-day cricket it makes that role more difficult now, so it's an important role and one that we recognise needs filling."

Sussex bowler Chris Jordan could make his England debut on Friday and Morgan says working alongside budding debutants has been the highlight of his captaincy so far.

"Those games in particular I've really enjoyed. The things I've most enjoyed about them has been handing out caps to debutants,” he said.

"It's fantastic to see guys being rewarded for a lot of hard work over a number of years and being rewarded by pulling the England shirt on and that makes me smile every day."

Edited by Michael Beattie

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England's one-day team face a monumental task against Australia as Ashley Giles' men audition for World Cup

England will be without their regular one-day opening pair of batsmen, Alastair Cook and Ian Bell, and their regular opening pair of bowlers, James Anderson and Stuart Broad, and their first choice-spinner Graeme Swann, and their regular captain. Eoin Morgan has led England, in place of Cook, only against his native Ireland.

No Cook, no Bell, no Anderson, no Broad, no Swann, and if and when Kevin Pietersen plays it will be on only one sound knee. England’s second-choice pace attack looks particularly thin, as Steve Finn is not yet back to his best and the rest are raw recruits. Australia, with their heavyweight opening pair of David Warner and Aaron Finch, could inflict record-breaking damage, just as they did in the first T20 international.

So it will be a surprise if Australia do not win by a bigger margin than England’s 3-0 in the Tests. Six of Australia’s players, including Michael Clarke, will be extra-motivated by their memories of losing the Test series – not to mention their Champions Trophy match in June, the first in this series of interminable fixtures between the two countries.

All of England’s selections were voluntary in that the key players are being rested, and were not dictated by injury. The dialogue in the selection meeting between Andy Flower, who has overall charge as well as being the Test coach, and Ashley Giles, England’s coach for 50-over and T20 cricket, might therefore have been one of those occasions that Giles referred to back in April.

“There could well be a situation down the line where Andy says you can’t have him (ie, a certain player), and I say well, I want him,” Giles said then. “But ultimately Andy is in charge, he’s team director, and we’ll have those discussions if we have to have them behind closed doors and come out in agreement. Ultimately it’s the good of English cricket: it’s a cliché but that’s what we’re here for.”

This situation has subsequently become more delicate. Straight after the Ashes series, Flower said nothing to confirm or reject reports that he was going to stand down as England’s team director after the return series this winter. He has never stated in public that he wants the job long-term, and now he has not even said that he wants the job short-term, beyond January.

A daringly planned and executed one-day series in the next fortnight against Australia – a 3-2 victory against all the odds – would put Giles in better than pole position to succeed Flower as the coach in charge of all formats, if the job arises in January. Following this one-day series, England play no more limited-overs matches until after the Ashes.

A 5-0 defeat in the next fortnight, on the other hand, will look like a serious blot on Giles’s CV to the independent selection panel — which is not composed solely of former players who will understand the circumstances – that the England and Wales Cricket Board usually constitutes to make the appointment of team director.

Amid these politics, and confronted by Clarke’s highly motivated side, any England reserve who does put his hand up can expect to be drafted into World Cup considerations. The next instalment, in Australia and New Zealand, is less than a year and a half away, and given England’s unrelenting schedule it is inconceivable that all three of Anderson, Pietersen and Swann will still be going by then.

England’s first-choice one-day team were not good enough to beat India in the Champions Trophy final at Edgbaston, so several new faces will have to be introduced if they are going to challenge – without home advantage – India and the two host countries. And all the while these new faces have been growing up without ever playing 50-over county cricket, a brilliantly cunning plan to ensure that England never win their first global 50-over trophy.

An outbreak of common sense will occur next year when the ban on 50-over county cricket – in place since 2010 – is lifted. England’s cricketers will then be able to compete in this format without any hands tied behind their back.

Five England players hoping to make an impression ...

Michael Carberry: Brilliant strokeplayer underestimated by more than one county but not, at last, by England. Hit 146 off 132 balls for the Lions against Bangladesh A to gain promotion.

Chris Jordan: Now 24, has grown into his body and can sustain real pace. Can hit a long ball, too. Key challenge is to develop the variations and subtleties for limited-overs.

Jamie Overton: Tall, strong and quick for 19. Has a fine action, everything going in a straight line, with some outswing. Bowled well in Australia last winter for the Under-19s.

Boyd Rankin: The latest signing – or poaching – from Ireland has yet to play an ODI for England but at 6ft7in gets plenty of bounce to force the batsman back. Aged 29, he is, alas, no batsman.

Ben Stokes: Destined to be England’s No?6 in more than one format. Has speeded up as a bowler, gets more bounce than the injured Woakes, and has hit seven first-class centuries.

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England's Ashes-winning Charlotte Edwards back on top of the world

She recalls with a shudder how, upon her Test debut against New Zealand in 1996, she had to wear the daintiest and most impractical of skirts.

"Can you imagine? It was terrible,” she says, preferring to leave the finer details of the look to the imagination. “At least there is a little more professionalism now. Everything has changed beyond recognition.”

At 33, Edwards has joined that rare breed of sportswoman to have scaled the sunlit uplands of her profession and stayed there.

She sits on an MCC committee, claims an MBE as part of her burgeoning swag of silverware, and today luxuriates in the most exquisite satisfaction of reclaiming the women’s Ashes.

Fresh from securing an emphatic series victory, she reflects: “It is probably the proudest moment of my career, even more so than winning the World Cup in 2009. Australia are the No?1 team in the world and they had taken away our crown. Not only did we set the record straight, we played the cricket we knew we could. It is a wonderful feeling.”

Through the haze of euphoria, anxieties are still attached to women’s cricket in this country, where just 25,000 played it in any form over the past year as opposed to the 230,000 clamouring to kick a football. But Edwards, through her deep-rooted and self-evident passion, has become emblematic of a telling shift in the sport’s profile this summer. Granted, the England side have profited hugely from the recent double-headers with the men’s team at Southampton and Chester-le-Street, but in the first Twenty20 contest at Chelmsford 5,000 punters filled the County Ground to watch them alone.

“We have been overwhelmed by the support we have had. Ten years ago you would never have attracted that number to a standalone women’s game. You would have been lucky to bring in 300.”

A phlegmatic character who maintains that she is always fixed on the next target, Edwards is making sure that she savours this latest episode of glory. After vanquishing Australia by seven wickets on Saturday, she and her delirious team-mates headed straight off to throw a hen-party for off-spinner Danni Hazell. This, she acknowledges, was a study in abstemiousness compared to the revelries that ensued after the Ashes-sealing triumph at the Ageas Bowl.

“We let our hair down on the way back to Gatwick Airport,” she says. “We called it the ‘party bus’.”

Under Edwards, England would be careful never to take the carousal to excess. When she and her charges shared the open-top bus parade with a hog-whimperingly inebriated Freddie Flintoff in 2005, they resisted any temptation to follow his lead. So they were all models of decorum? “Oh, I don’t know about that. But we weren’t quite that drunk.”

When Edwards won a record 142nd one-day international cap in Colombo in 2010, Clare Connor, whom she replaced as England captain, heralded her as a “credit to women’s cricket globally, a superb role model for girls who aspire to play for their country”.

It is easy to see why, given how steadfastly she has cleaved to her life’s vocation from the age of 11. It helped that she had a father and an elder brother who both played for Cambridgeshire, but from there she has made her work her own. “I watched my father play every week, and I know I wouldn’t have achieved what I have otherwise,” she explains. “We’re very lucky now, though, that girls don’t have to rely on their background to get into cricket.

“The opportunities, whether in terms of one-or-one coaching or the ability to compete in all-girl cricket in schools, are so much greater.” A family visit to England’s victory over India during the 1993 World Cup would decree her fate.

“We all ran on to the pitch afterwards,” she remembers. “I knew in that moment that I wanted to play cricket for a living.”

Alternative paths threatened to entice her, not least a sideline in tennis inspired by her idolising of Steffi Graf. “It was that awesome rivalry with Martina Navratilova that did it. But I knew 100 per cent that cricket was my main goal. I didn’t enjoy tennis as much, for the simple reason that I didn’t like being on my own. I craved being part of a team.”

Her subsequent surge to prominence, sparked by a remarkable 12 centuries for England before she had even turned 18, has coincided with an extraordinary evolution of the sport she loves.

“Twenty years, the cricket world was not what it was,” she says. “In every match I felt as if I was being judged. They were the hardest days for me as a cricket, what spurred me on to succeed. I created quite a thick skin around me. I felt as though I could deal with anything.” And of the future? Can the Edwards effect last until she is 40? “I haven’t put any time limit on it,” she replies, firmly. “I wouldn’t be doing this if I wasn’t still consumed by the passion.”

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Ashes 2013: England's Stuart Broad accepts apology from Darren Lehmann

Lehmann was fined 20 per cent of his match fee for the fifth Ashes Test for describing, during a radio interview on the eve of the match, Broad's refusal to walk after an edge in the series opener as "blatant cheating".

But the England man said the matter was now closed. Broad wrote on Twitter: "Spoke to Darren Lehmann last night. He apologised for his comments, I accepted it. He said they were made in Jest for banter. Done."

England took a series besieged by talking points 3-0, with Lehmann at the heart of some of them.

Speaking to Australian radio station Triple M about Broad last week, Lehmann also called on the Australian public to "get stuck into him" when England tour this winter, adding that he hoped the seamer "cries and goes home".

England were not moved to report the incident to the International Cricket Council, but ICC chief executive Dave Richardson laid a charge himself and Lehmann pleaded guilty to "publicly criticising and making inappropriate comments" about Broad.

He accepted match referee Roshan Mahanama's proposal of a 20 per cent fine - about £2,000 - which meant no formal hearing was necessary.

Lehmann has insisted he would learn from the Broad situation. "I've had a chat with him already. We just move on," he said. "It was a good learning curve for a new coach, wasn't it? You know, [it was] a jovial setting but you've got to learn from that. I've got to learn and improve from that.

"The players aren't on their own in trying to improve. Coaches have got to improve so that's something I've got to get better at."

Despite the 3-0 defeat and the criticism received following the radio interview, Lehmann still has a passion for the role and is looking forward to the remainder of the tour in England.

"I'm still loving it, it's a great job," he added. "I'd like to win a Test match, but it's a fantastic job. I've seen all the players here, and the one-day and Twenty20 players are starting Thursday, so you get to deal with them and look at how we're going in that format of the game as well.

"By the end of the tour I'll have a really good mindset on all the players which will be quite comforting for me as coach. The players seem to be enjoying it which is good but we also realise we need to win some games."

Having replaced Mickey Arthur barely a fortnight before the opening Test at Trent Bridge, Lehmann believes he has not had time to stamp his own philosophy on the Australia team but expects that to change when England travel Down Under for the return series.

"It is really hard when you've just come into the set-up and the touring side's been picked," Lehmann added.

"When we're back home you'll probably see different things happen, but in terms of hearing a lot of things from outside and not being in that circle for many years, to come in and see how they're trying to improve all the time - that was impressive for me. Now it's a matter of improving that skill level to compete better than we have."

(Editing by Robert Dineen)

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Ashes 2013: England's Kevin Pietersen heads the batting cast in a composite series XI featuring five Australians

It was the 2094th Test, and never before had the equation been 227 off 44 overs. It was fairly similar at Centurion in 2000 but then Hansie Cronje, South Africa’s captain, was fixed on not drawing the game.

So at the Oval theatre, the last act of this series had no script. The coaches could not tell their players anything of specific relevance from their experience. The players could not be programmed.

And such uncertainty on a late August evening, born of Michael Clarke’s daring declaration, riveted all concerned. At the end of an over when the PA announcer tried to tell the crowd about the ceremonies that would take place at the finish, such was the clapping, cheering and chanting that not one of his words was audible.

It was drama - and, better still, the drama of the first-night play, when none of the audience knows the outcome. Or rather, best of all, a play in which nobody - neither the audience nor the actors - knows what the outcome will be.

Kevin Pietersen did his best to script the finish. When he came in, England wanted 141 runs from the last 145 balls of the series, although there was always the likelihood that fading light would shave off a few overs.

Cometh the hour, cometh the showman. Pietersen feels good at the Oval: not only his breakthrough innings of 158 in 2005, but his first Test here as captain when he made a century against South Africa, and won. He not only averages more than 60 runs per innings here but, thanks to some pace in the pitch, four runs per over.

During his 55 balls, Pietersen could hardly have done more to recreate the magic of his innings eight years ago. But there was one difference between then and now. This Australian side have not been able to bat like their predecessors, or bowl Shane Warne, but their ground-fielding has been superlative.

In 2005 Pietersen was dropped more than once when the match was far from safe. On Sunday evening the first time he hit the ball towards a fielder, he was caught by David Warner at long-on.

Jonathan Trott had contributed 13 to their partnership of 77 and, being mortal, could not accelerate as his partner had. The next two Warwickshire players, Ian Bell and Chris Woakes, stayed on course to knock off the runs in 44 overs, but not in the 40 overs that approaching autumn allowed, before the script decreed the curtain should come down.

Before Pietersen, England’s captain Alastair Cook had found some fluency for the first time in this series. Even though he did not ‘go on’, once again, Cook did enough - in addition to his conscientious captaincy - to merit being one of the opening batsman in a composite eleven made up of these two sides.

Chris Rogers, though demoted on Sunday, would be Cook’s partner. Shane Watson was man of this match for his 176, and he can bowl better than Trott. Watson’s spell last evening was wicketless, as usual, yet invaluable.

Pietersen’s conversation with Michael Clarke, when they partner each other at four and five, would be worth turning up the stump-mike for. And when one of them runs the other out, there is always Bell to make another hundred.

Brad Haddin’s record feat, of making the most dismissals in any Test series, was overlooked in the closing ceremonies: no wonder wicketkeepers are used to being neglected. Haddin made his 29 catches off nine different bowlers, but most of them - nine - off Ryan Harris.

Harris, the bustling bull-dog with no bite, took 24 wickets in only four Tests. He and James Anderson would be a pace attack to avoid, backed by Stuart Broad who improved as the series went on, whereas Peter Siddle faded.

And who else but Graeme Swann, the leading wicket-taker with 26, to be the spinner? Didn’t he love being in control?

Composite XI: Cook, Rogers, Watson, Pietersen, Clarke (capt), Bell, Haddin, Broad, Swann, Harris and Anderson.

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England's Ashes winners rested for one-day series against Australia as five uncapped players named in squad

Before his back problems, Jordan looked as if he might become the next Andrew Flintoff – his bowling being both quick and aggressive and his batting delightfully uncomplicated.

If that ambition has been tempered he certainly has it in him to be the next Tim Bresnan, if not a cricketer of his own design.

He qualifies for England through a grandmother and for West Indies through birth.

Indeed, West Indies had been interested in securing his services but perhaps forgot to make another approach once it became likely that his back problem would not compromise him.

Given the same choice back in the early 1970s, Gordon Greenidge chose (wisely as it happened) to play for West Indies and became one of the greats.

But if Jordan delivers on his early promise it will be a coup for England.

Jordan is one of 10 players in England’s one-day squad who represented England Lions against Bangladesh recently, registering two wins and a loss.

With the selectors deciding to rest Alastair Cook, Ian Bell, Stuart Broad (though he will captain England’s T20 side this week), Graeme Swann and James Anderson after the Ashes, it always made sense to blood talented youngsters in the hope they might be fully formed by the next World Cup in 2015.

That learning process is why Kevin Pietersen has been retained and not rested alongside his Ashes team mates despite having a sore knee.

As he showed on the final day at the Kia Oval, few can match his batting versatility when the mood takes him and tyros such as Ben Stokes will assimilate a lot about one-day batting just by watching him and Eoin Morgan, England’s acting captain in Cook’s absence.

Pietersen is rested from the T20s and the squad to play Ireland, for which his place has been taken by Yorkshire’s Gary Ballance.

“Following a very intense period of cricket this summer we have decided to rest a number of senior players,” Geoff Miller, the national selector, said.

“This creates an excellent opportunity for players who have impressed in county cricket and for England Lions recently to test themselves at international level as we continue to build a squad ahead of the ICC Cricket World Cup, which is less than 18 months away.”

After his surprise selection in the final Test, the absence of Chris Woakes from the one-day squad seems something of a puzzle, as does, given the experimental nature of the squad, the absence of Jonny Bairstow.

According to Miller, both have been given ample opportunity in England’s one-day sides before and the pair have been returned to their counties, Woakes to rediscover his swing and Bairstow to do some wicketkeeping.

“Players just don’t get given caps, they have to earn the opportunity through good performances with their counties,” Miller said.

“Once they have done that they will be considered for the next step, which is to introduce them to the international environment to see how they fare.”

One player eager to prove himself after a small taste of Test cricket three years ago is Michael Carberry.

Picked for a Test tour of Bangladesh, on the back of being an organised opening batsman, Carberry has revealed his inner animal for Hampshire this season to gain selection to both England’s T20 and one-day squads.

Like Jordan, he has endured a period out of the game, following complications from blood clots, but seems at the peak of his form now, ready to target Australia and the World Cup there in 18 months’ time.

England ODI squad v Ireland: E Morgan (Middlesex, capt), G Ballance (Yorkshire), R Bopara (Essex), D Briggs (Hampshire), J Buttler (Somerset), M Carberry (Hampshire), S Finn (Middlesex), C Jordan (Sussex), J Overton (Somerset), B Rankin (Warwickshire), B Stokes (Durham), J Taylor (Nottinghamshire), J Tredwell (Kent), L Wright (Sussex).

England ODI squad v Australia: E Morgan (Middlesex, capt), R Bopara (Essex), J Buttler (Somerset), M Carberry (Hampshire), S Finn (Middlesex), C Jordan (Sussex), J Overton (Somerset), K Pietersen (Surrey), B Rankin (Warwickshire), J Root (Yorkshire), B Stokes (Durham), J Tredwell (Kent), J Trott (Warwickshire), L Wright (Sussex).

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Ashes 2013: England's Kevin Pietersen heads the batting cast in a composite series XI featuring five Australians

It was the 2094th Test, and never before had the equation been 227 off 44 overs. It was fairly similar at Centurion in 2000 but then Hansie Cronje, South Africa’s captain, was fixed on not drawing the game.

So at the Oval theatre, the last act of this series had no script. The coaches could not tell their players anything of specific relevance from their experience. The players could not be programmed.

And such uncertainty on a late August evening, born of Michael Clarke’s daring declaration, riveted all concerned. At the end of an over when the PA announcer tried to tell the crowd about the ceremonies that would take place at the finish, such was the clapping, cheering and chanting that not one of his words was audible.

It was drama - and, better still, the drama of the first-night play, when none of the audience knows the outcome. Or rather, best of all, a play in which nobody - neither the audience nor the actors - knows what the outcome will be.

Kevin Pietersen did his best to script the finish. When he came in, England wanted 141 runs from the last 145 balls of the series, although there was always the likelihood that fading light would shave off a few overs.

Cometh the hour, cometh the showman. Pietersen feels good at the Oval: not only his breakthrough innings of 158 in 2005, but his first Test here as captain when he made a century against South Africa, and won. He not only averages more than 60 runs per innings here but, thanks to some pace in the pitch, four runs per over.

During his 55 balls, Pietersen could hardly have done more to recreate the magic of his innings eight years ago. But there was one difference between then and now. This Australian side have not been able to bat like their predecessors, or bowl Shane Warne, but their ground-fielding has been superlative.

In 2005 Pietersen was dropped more than once when the match was far from safe. On Sunday evening the first time he hit the ball towards a fielder, he was caught by David Warner at long-on.

Jonathan Trott had contributed 13 to their partnership of 77 and, being mortal, could not accelerate as his partner had. The next two Warwickshire players, Ian Bell and Chris Woakes, stayed on course to knock off the runs in 44 overs, but not in the 40 overs that approaching autumn allowed, before the script decreed the curtain should come down.

Before Pietersen, England’s captain Alastair Cook had found some fluency for the first time in this series. Even though he did not ‘go on’, once again, Cook did enough - in addition to his conscientious captaincy - to merit being one of the opening batsman in a composite eleven made up of these two sides.

Chris Rogers, though demoted on Sunday, would be Cook’s partner. Shane Watson was man of this match for his 176, and he can bowl better than Trott. Watson’s spell last evening was wicketless, as usual, yet invaluable.

Pietersen’s conversation with Michael Clarke, when they partner each other at four and five, would be worth turning up the stump-mike for. And when one of them runs the other out, there is always Bell to make another hundred.

Brad Haddin’s record feat, of making the most dismissals in any Test series, was overlooked in the closing ceremonies: no wonder wicketkeepers are used to being neglected. Haddin made his 29 catches off nine different bowlers, but most of them - nine - off Ryan Harris.

Harris, the bustling bull-dog with no bite, took 24 wickets in only four Tests. He and James Anderson would be a pace attack to avoid, backed by Stuart Broad who improved as the series went on, whereas Peter Siddle faded.

And who else but Graeme Swann, the leading wicket-taker with 26, to be the spinner? Didn’t he love being in control?

Composite XI: Cook, Rogers, Watson, Pietersen, Clarke (capt), Bell, Haddin, Broad, Swann, Harris and Anderson.

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Ashes 2013: Graeme Swann and Ian Bell deserve the plaudits for their efforts during England's series win

Best catch
Cook’s diving at full stretch and one-handed to dismiss Peter Siddle at Trent Bridge. Stunning, and hugely important.

Best ball
Anderson’s inswinging leg-cutter to remove Michael Clarke at Trent Bridge. Clarke also copped a beauty from Broad at Durham. Both looked unplayable, but, as former Australian batsman David Boon once observed, very few are in reality. Boon said he only received one such ball in his career. Clarke’s lingering on the back foot for the short ball does weaken his front-foot defence.

Biggest villain
David Warner, of course. Not Broad nor the Decision Review System, but the man who whacked Joe Root in a bar and then called for a ludicrous review after edging Swann behind at Old Trafford.

In fairness Warner fronted up to his misdemeanour and has taken the stick in good part. He remains a dangerous batsman, of whom England will be wary this winter.

Hardest done-by award
Not Ed Cowan, who was very harshly dropped after failing twice while ill at Trent Bridge, but the DRS system that has so often been maligned. It has had its problems, yes, but nobody said it was perfect before the series. In the balefully scrutinised and pressurised world of modern-day sport, it helps achieve more correct decisions. Surely that is good. HotSpot could be better, of course, but calls such as those for sides not to lose a review when an umpire’s call is revealed are erroneous. Sides must realise that, for instance, the ball must be smashing the stumps for a not out lbw decision to be overturned. Leave it as it is.

Biggest misconception
That Broad’s infamous edge at Trent Bridge went straight to slip. It went there via the wicketkeeper. Even Darren Lehmann in his spectacularly ill-judged radio interview for which he was fined last week was still contending as much.

Spirit of cricket award
Broad, obviously. He has walked ever since that incident. Much ado about little, if you ask me. Maybe one day we will get to a point where technology is so reliable that all batsmen will walk off anyway, but we are clearly nowhere near that situation yet.

Best masterclass
Sky Sports have shown some wonderful examples of these during the series, but they have been off the field with former stars of the game. The best one live for me was by Clarke during his 187 at Old Trafford. The way he used his feet to Swann was quite delightful. So few batsmen do that these days. You are allowed to leave your crease.

Worst decision
Usman Khawaja when given out caught behind to Graeme Swann at Old Trafford, not just by on-field umpire, Tony Hill, but also by third umpire Kumar Dharmasena. There was a clue as to why it was not out; there was clear daylight between bat and ball. That usually means the batsman has not hit the ball!

Best Ground
Trent Bridge, a wonderfully relaxed and efficient mix of the old and the new, is always a personal favourite and it provided a spectacular first Test, with England rather fortunate that lunch arrived when it did on the nerve-shredding final day. Old Trafford has improved markedly since receiving the prod of losing a 2009 Ashes Test to Cardiff, and Durham hosted a fine first Ashes Test, although they could clearly do with installing permanent floodlights. No Ashes Test ground should be without them these days. Whether, though, the likes of Durham, Cardiff and Southampton can secure Ashes Tests after 2015 is another question. I doubt it.

Minor gripe
That England’s uncapped twelfth men are permitted to wear England caps on the field. They are supposed to be earnt.

Most obvious visit to the village green
Swann’s donkey-drop full toss that dismissed Chris Rogers lbw at Lord’s, made worse by Rogers’ failure to review the decision, with the ball clearly missing the stumps.

Worst but most popular century
Rogers’ effort on the Saturday at Durham when the ball jagged around all over the place and Rogers was often later to the ball than Cinderella. Apparently there were Englishmen cheering him to his hundred. He must be one hell of a bloke.

Best story
The fairytale that was Ashton Agar’s 98 on debut at Trent Bridge. Quite what he was doing playing in front of the increasingly excellent Nathan Lyon has not become clear, with his selection for the second Test at Lord’s when he was not fit either even more mystifying. Harsh as it might sound, it may be that never scores a Test century, because his bowling will have to improve considerably for him to be selected again in the first place.

Worst story
That players use tape on their bats to fool HotSpot, as advanced by an Australian TV station. Absolute rubbish, and its running as a news item was an embarrassment to our industry.

One thing I would change for the return series
The umpires. English and Australian umpires must be allowed to stand. The pool from which those selected to stand in this series has been criminally small. It must be enlarged.

One thing I wouldn’t change
Australia’s top five in the batting order. It has taken much rearranging of the chairs to come to this point of productivity, but Rogers, Warner, Watson, Clarke and Smith look set for now. It really is game on this winter.

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Ashes 2013: the hush at Lord's as England's Joe Root reached his century against Australia proved that silence is golden

Huge applause followed Tim Bresnan and Joe Root through the Long Room and on to the pitch.

Peter Siddle was thrown the ball by Michael Clarke, but as he started stampeding in there was suddenly no sound. For whatever reason, anticipation and delight equalled silence.

It was rather lovely actually. It did not last very long – just the first couple of overs, before intense concentration meandered a while — but it returned just before tea as Root neared his century.

It remained until Root became the youngest Englishman to score a hundred at Lord’s against Australia, and returned again as Ashton Agar and Steve Smith helped him on the way to 150 – with a push towards square leg and a scurried single.

While a frenzy of gluttony was gathering at the Food Village behind the Media Centre, those watching could close their eyes and tell from the noise of the crowd who was facing – a tense hush for Root, chatter for Jonny Bairstow.

It was similar to the silence that stalked Graham Gooch at the Lord’s Test against India 23 years ago as he crept towards the then magical 365.

As we’ve become less reserved as a nation, our sport has become more raucous. We make more noise, and the organisers organise more noise on our behalf.

During London 2012 music was everywhere – NME called it “the most music-oriented Olympic Games ever”.

It thudded through the speakers at ever venue – between goals at the wheelchair basketball, between races at the swimming, during penalty corners at the hockey. The Chemical Brothers’ Galvanize haunted every waking footstep.

The only silence was forced, during the Paralympic football, blind jumping events and goalball, so that the players could listen out for sounds and instruction.

The general noise levels were a deliberate ploy by Locog, to try to attract a younger audience – it worked. And there was an unforgettable atmosphere everywhere.

But it is not just the Olympics – during Twenty20 cricket, snatches of song play at every wicket.

The Indian Premier League is obsessed by noise. Even during the first Test at Trent Bridge, James Pattinson and Brad Haddin were bombarded with a high-decibel version Land of Hope and Glory as they walked out to bat after lunch on the final day.

This forced jollity is generally a good thing – it gees things up and keeps the hair standing on end but, for those who would rather watch sport in companionable silence, the din and the chanting must be a living hell.

As the much-missed Christopher Martin-Jenkins wrote about the Barmy Army, “Come friendly bombs and fall on them”.

People go to sport to enjoy themselves. There is a feeling of common humanity that comes from watching something together and noisily getting wrapped up in it.

When Mo Farah won the Olympic 5,000m the noise of 80,000 delirious spectators reached 140 decibels – so loud it messed up the finishing-line photograph.

The silence at Lord’s at the weekend did not interfere with any photographs. But it was equally, quietly, enjoyable.

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England's Joe Root shows Bunbury Under-15 cricket festival is still hitting the heights

Only the South African-educated Jonathan Trott and Kevin Pietersen missed out on cutting their teeth at the five-day event, now in its 27th year and being held at Durham University this week.

On average, two cricketers a year have emerged to become international players. David English — the founder, organiser and fundraiser who has become known as The Godfather of English Cricket — hailed Bunbury No?60 Joe Root after his stunning performance for England.

“It’s a route to being an England cricketer and the boys know the senior ECB [England and Wales Cricket Board] officials are watching,” English said. “It’s a showcase for the boys. As Paul Collingwood told them on Monday morning, seven years ago Joe Root was standing there getting his cap, just like they were.”

Philanthropist David Fitzherbert is midway through rowing 140 miles along the Thames to Putney in his sculling boat Rocinante.

The aim of his venture, which ends on Saturday, is to raise £10,000 to bring rowing to the pupils of several state schools in Hammersmith & Fulham. Few state schools in the UK have access to rowing and even those on the Thames in London are rarely able to afford the extra cost of this sport.

“For £10,000 it is possible to get a squad of some 16 boys and girls from one school to learn to row for a year,” Fitzherbert said. Supporting donations should be sent to The Broadwall Foundation.

Email your letters on school sport to gareth.davies@telegraph.co.uk

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