CRICKET: A season of unprecedented success came to an emphatic conclusion shortly after 4.30 p.m. on Saturday when Marcus Trescothick drilled the third ball of England's second innings through the off side to complete a 10-wicket win, a 4-0 series whitewash of West Indies and a clean sweep of all seven of the summer's Tests after their earlier successes against New Zealand.
England will tour South Africa in December before they face Australia in next year's home Ashes series. England captain Michael Vaughan acknowledges his team's opponents so far this year are not in the same class.
"There is no reason why we can not continue the run, but we realise South Africa are a good side," he said. "Australia are one of the best teams that have ever played the game so we have got a long way to go to match them."
Should Vaughan's side win the first Test against South Africa in Port Elizabeth in December the run of eight successive wins thus created would be the first by England. With the side now established officially as the second best in the world, the odds on that happening would not be long.
On Wednesday morning, the process of achieving this target starts with the announcement of the 16-man touring party and, if the selectors have perhaps a clearer idea than ever before of the direction the side is heading, there are still areas for debate.
The thoughts on the structure of the party are plain: the best XI with specialist cover for each position except for Andy Flintoff as an all-rounder, who in that capacity is irreplaceable, and an extra seamer for good measure.
In an ideal world none of the supporting cast, on what is an intensive tour of Tests with little else besides, cannot expect to play much, if any, cricket. They must be good tourists, understanding the needs of the team, willing netters, sponges for information, and have the mental and technical capacity to be able to slot into the team at short notice.
Most discussion will be given to the final batting place which, given that Graham Thorpe and Mark Butcher are both regarded as integral parts of the best team, will go either to Robert Key or Ian Bell. What a choice to have to make. Key, in a second coming, responded wonderfully with a double century at Lord's and, more pertinently, with an unbeaten match-winning knock in the fourth innings at Old Trafford a week ago. He has fielded gamely at short-leg and held a blinder away from the bat on Friday.
Bell, for his part, came into the side on the back of brilliant county form and his one Test innings hinted at a cultured future, with a compact technique and unruffled temperament.
To take them both would be a cop-out, though, so the selectors have to ask themselves at which player would the high-class bowlers to be encountered by England in the next 12 months - Shaun Pollock, Makhaya Ntini, Glenn McGrath, Jason Gillespie and Shane Warne for starters - least like to bowl.
TOUR PARTY (Possible): Vaughan, Trescothick, Strauss, Butcher, Thorpe, Flintoff, G Jones, Giles, Hoggard, Harmison, Anderson, S Jones, Kabir Ali, Batty, Read, Bell.
