Ed Smith

Asking them to regain the heights of the 1980s would be too much, but they can still be a force in international competition

The challenge for most cricketers- and other sportsmen - is to retain their personality while getting better at the game

Leadership of cricket teams involves a fair amount of a sort of luck

They aren't just a decent side who managed to make it to No. 1

Andrew Strauss doesn't pose, shout, or try to shove all his players into one mould. Being his own man may just be his greatest virtue

It's a disease that afflicts all teams these days - of too much cricket and too much travel

When England set cautious fields they are called tactically naïve; but they win

While nostalgia can skew anyone's judgement, it's just as much a fallacy to think that all aspects of a sport are always improving

What makes some players talismans, in whose presence their teams play better than they would otherwise?

They may be the ones who front up at the post-match press conferences, but they're not really in control of the matters they answer questions about

Predicting how a player is going to perform has always been a tricky business

How can we tell coincidence from errors of approach and application? It's a question of judgement

In a game where so many variables are outside a player's control, the value of superstition as a crutch cannot be overestimated

A whole strand of the game - a rich vein that runs through cricket's poetic heart - departs the scene with one of the all-time great No. 3s

For much of his career, Eoin Morgan has had the door opened welcomingly wide for him. No longer

Leadership isn't a quality, or about field placings. It is an effect that a player has on a group

It is the product that matters. If the interest in Test cricket is declining, it is because the standard is not all that high

Far from being the downfall of Test match technique, T20 may actually help batsmen get into good habits for the long form

Debutants seem likelier to succeed these days than their established team-mates. It wasn't always this way

Some players have talent; others make the best of themselves with sheer bloody-minded hard work