AS English cricket hits its lowest point for 80 years, we pick through the dying embers of the Ashes debacle. ON September 12, 2005, English cricket heralded a new dawn at The Oval.

After 16 long years of hurt, Michael Vaughan and his team of heroes reclaimed the urn that had almost taken up roots in the colonies.

Drinking binges, mass celebrations and street parties swept the national as honours were lavished upon the national team. Great.

But as England supped the champagne of celebration and gorged on the kebab of delusion and over-hype in Blighty, the Aussies went home and began to prepare for the next encounter.

And just over a year later, how different the picture looks after a 5-0 series "Greenwash".

And unfortunately, the tourists did everything they could to help them get it back.

Poor judgement and blinding incompetence have been the hallmarks of England's 2006/07 Ashes tour.

From the distinct lack of preparation prior to the series (a charge still denied by everyone attached to the England side) and a bewildering selection policy (remember Fletcher calling Monty Panesar the best finger spinner in world cricket' before dropping him for a bloke who hadn't played in a year?) But then there was the performances. Oh Lord, there was the performances.

From the very first ball of the series, England looked like rabbits in the headlights.

And maybe, if you were like me, you will have feared the worst as soon as Steve Harmison's first ball plopped into Andrew Flintoff's hands at second slip.

There were high points but all to few and far between. The top and bottom of it was that England weren't good enough.

Andrew Flintoff wasn't fit and his tactics were lacking at times. The England batsmen weren't prepared to dig in and fight to defend their wickets and the bowlers weren't able to put the ball in the right areas often enough. All that adds up to a 5-0 drubbing.

In my eyes, the final result doesn't matter. We lost and that's all that counts. The series was over before the turn of the year and the result probably means more to Glen McGrath than it does to anyone else.

How many times had he bragged the Aussies would win an Ashes series 5-0?

What's important now is how we recover.

Changes have to be made to the way the England side is selected and how young players are brought up through the ranks. English cricket needs to be fighting fit come the 2009 series because at the moment it's flabby and still hungover following the party of 2005. That has to be what the next couple of years build up to.

But, thankfully, the Aussies will be a much-changed and much weaker side than the one that has just battered us Down Under.

The Aussies have had the outrageous good fortune to have had some of the greatest players ever to have played the game in the same team at the same time and these freaks - I mean that in the nicest possible way - won't be easy to replace.

My spies Down Under will claim that the colonials have talent to burn. Poppycock!

If they were good enough they'd already be in because that's the Australian way.

But England needs to get its own house in order and learn the lessons of this Ashes debacle to make sure it never happens again.