ENGLAND'S Ashes campaign was a disaster waiting to happen. Whoever planned the itinery for this tour has a lot to answer for.

How can a side be prepared for one of the most important Test series in years having played a meaningless one-day match and two three-day games - one of which wasn't even given first-class status?

And to make matters worse, the England management haven't even scheduled real games in between the Tests.

How on earth is Steve Harmison, or any of the players for that matter, expected to play themselves into form with a two-day match.

Sure, Andrew Strauss and Alastair Cook will benefit from getting runs, but why was there no intense cricket before the start of the series and in between the second and third Tests? Who made that decision and why?

You have to prepare out here with tough, intense cricket in order to compete with the best team in the world and England have paid the price in the opening two Tests for not doing that.

I do fear for the rest of the series, starting at Perth tomorrow.

Improvement

Although I hate to say it, it will need a massive improvement from our boys if they are to prevent a 5-0 whitewash.

We simply have too many players not performing at their best, and they have not been given the chance away from the Test arena to rectify that.

With Harmison out of sorts, Saj Mahmood staked a claim with both ball and bat against Western Australia but the only cricket he has played since the start of the first Test was last weekend's two-day game at the WACA which is no preparation at all for an Ashes Test match. It was more like a net session.

And the same goes for Monty Panesar. He has to play at Perth because the pitch will take spin but he has had hardly any cricket since he got here.

England's performances so far have been light years away from in 2005 when they won the Ashes. And the Aussie Press are certainly ensuring England know they are up against it.

They have been giving the players, and especially coach Duncan Fletcher, stick since that debacle in Adelaide.

There has been a lot of talk about who actually picks the side. Andrew Flintoff admitted that he and Fletcher talk to three senior players in the management team - Andrew Strauss, Paul Collingwood and Geraint Jones - before picking the side.

The problem with the selection system has always been that it invites criticism of both the captain and the coach when things aren't going well and I have always felt it is a confused system.

It is totally different from the way football teams are picked where the manager picks the side - and there is a lot of merit in having one man in charge.

It has been frustrating watching Jimmy Anderson in the opening two Tests. He has by far been the pick of the England bowlers in the warm-up matches and showed his talent again last weekend. He has had rave reviews from both England and Aussie journalists but at Brisbane and Adelaide the Lancashire youngster didn't come close to reproducing that form.

My advice to the Burnley Express is patience, lad. He has to develop a stock delivery and not try to bowl a magic ball every time he runs up to the crease. Then, and only then, will he produce the consistency needed in the Test arena.

There are rumours flying around that Flintoff's ankle is still bothering him. I am certain he will start tomorrow, but the worry must be that he will not get through all five days. If he doesn't, England really will be in the mire.

Tweet