By NEIL BRAMWELL DAVID Lloyd and his England players have set new standards on the field with a Texaco Trophy series performance bristling with typical Southern Hemisphere agression and strategy.
So it is a pity that those efforts have been stopped dead in their tracks by the fossilised strategy of the powers that be.
Every other cricketing country in the world has realised the marketing potential of the one day game.
Yet the British public are still served starvation rations of just three international games every summer.
For the non-purists - and their numbers are growing - the one-day game contains the thrills and spills that Test cricket lacks.
The Australians will obviously have more pulling power than most tourists in the Ashes series.
But you only have to see attendances at Test grounds around the world to see that that form of the game has to move with the times and modernise to survive.
Forget designer stubble and spitting, concentrate on broadening the spectator base by abandoning meaningless devotion to tradition.
Why play the game in whites? And why over five days? And why in series and not one Test championships.
The very term "purist" prompts me to spit feathers.
How is a 'textbook' cover drive any more pure than a perfectly timed 'slog' over mid-wicket?
These are entirely different techniques but who is to say that either discipline requires greater skill.
What has become clear over a number of years is that Australia - both at one-day and Test level - has developed a far more solid skill base with a more modern attitude to the game.
So England must be careful not to fall into the trap of resting on those one-day laurels.
Contrary to popular opinion, there must be wholesale changes.
Nick Knight must make way for Surrey's Mark Butcher to open up with Atherton.
Three of the four specialist batsmen positions pick themselves with Thorpe, Crawley and Alec Stewart, who should also take the keeper's gloves.
Adam Hollioake has done enough to secure the all-rounder slot and Robert Croft and Darren Gough are automatic selections as bowlers.
That leaves two bowlers and the number five slot, where Nasser Hussain is worth another shot.
Mike Smith has been bowling well enough on an unhelpful track at Gloucester to deserve a dart and no English bowler is as menacing on his day as Devon Malcolm.
But the stark fact is that the Australians are still far stronger than Mike Atherton's men in every department.
And their poor early season form can be solely attributed to the poor planning of their opening itinerary in England.
After a southern hemisphere summer and a tour of South Africa, the Aussies needed far more preparation in English conditions.
England are lucky that the first Test is at Edgbaston, where recent history suggests that anything is possible.
Warwickshire authorities, however, will be keen to produce a better cricket wicket in order to secure Test status.
But the opener still represents England's best chance of success but, from there, I expect the Australians to go from strength to strength to take the series 3-1.
Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.
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