I signed up to the local library today – first time I have been there in 20 odd years – and picked up David Fulton’s book on Ashes captains (called The Captains Tales – Battle For The Ashes). I have read the Ponting entry for 2006/7 – remember that series happened – and he says that the Adelaide victory was the greatest he’d ever achieved. I am not sure how much of the following is due to the fact Fulton got access to Langer, but the gnome’s input into that team seems to have been understated… also interested to note that he felt the England team walked out at Brisbane scared. I have three weeks to read this, and it is the sort of book you can dip in and out of, and I will report back, but first impressions are favourable.

Langer’s comment seems very pertinent – “It was just the body language. In 2005 they were just so pumped up for it. This time it was the other end of the scale – they weren’t there mate.” Lessons for 2010/11, maybe? Go there prepared for the big series we view it as.

I’m also ploughing through the Richie tome, My Spin On Cricket. There was an absolute nothing chapter on match fixing and Hansie Cronje, which was bizarre in the extreme, and only seemed to be there for Richie to say he knew Mark Waugh was not out on the final day at Adelaide Oval in the mid-90s (when Cronje put the stump through the changing room door). Thanks Richie. There then followed a much more interesting piece on Don Bradman, although it might have helped that it was written by Arthur Mailey. 50 pages in and this book is so odd, I can’t tell you. If it were a collection of essays from his years in the game I could understand the concept, but it isn’t. Truly bizarre.