Andrew Flintoff has flattered to deceive, really, since Ashes '05. He should never have been made captain in Australia and I said this before the home series against Pakistan had finished. The effect on Andrew Strauss, who was snubbed for the captaincy after doing so well that summer, was and is devastating - I'd argue he is just as much if not more of a loss. The same is true of Chris Read who did everything that was asked of him after he replaced Geraint Jones and yet three weeks before a ball was bowled in the Ashes he was told he would not be playing. Shoddy, very shoddy, but England's loss is very definitely Nottinghamshire's gain.
Kevin Pietersen has also displayed a lot of the traits that led to him not only wanting to leave Nottinghamshire but also (despite what the club said publicly)Nottinghamshire wanting rid of him. In fairness though he's shown less of this in recent months.
How Steve Harmison gets a game after Ashes 06/07 is for me utterly incomprehensible. To have our main strike bowler proclaim at a press conference as he did at Brisbane(?) that he "was not bothered" about taking the new ball is astounding. Could you imagine Glenn McGrath saying that? Or Jeff Thomson, or Dennis Lillee, or even a certain Frederick Sewards Trueman?! I truly believe that Steve does not even like cricket! They would (despite his 3 wickets) have been better keeping faith with Stuart Broad.
But I'm not totally full of gloom. It is notoriously difficult to tour the sub-continent and all this series does is put the successes we had under Nasser Hussain in Sri Lanka/Pakistan/India into context. Rather that berate England, I prefer to marvel at an astounding Sri Lankan performance.