"By now England were supposed to be the best cricket team in the world," says Angus Fraser in the New Zealand Herald. "Well, that was the view of the tens of thousands of celebrating England supporters who gathered in Trafalgar Square the day after Michael Vaughan's side regained the Ashes in 2005 and the England and Wales Cricket Board who basked in the glory and made bold predictions of world domination. It has not quite worked out like that."
Then came the Ashes, a victory that made every player feel like a superstar. MBEs were handed out as if they were sweets at a primary school and Andrew Flintoff was named as the BBC's Sports Personality of the Year. In the aftermath, the players saw an opportunity to capitalise on their success and make loads of money. Appearances were made here, endorsements signed there and suddenly the focus turned outward. The complete overreaction of the English media and everyone associated with English cricket probably led some players to believe that a lifetime's work had been completed. So the starting point of the slide was the focus of the team.
"[Michael] Vaughan must now rely on younger men, the [Stuart] Broads and [James] Andersons, to get England out of the hole they dug for themselves," writes Michael Henderson in the Telegraph. "If, however, they fail to respond to his leadership, he may be forced to look at his own position, which is not something any captain wants to be doing with another Ashes contest no more than 15 months away."
