Deep doubts, deep wisdom; small doubts, little wisdom.

Ask any English Cricket fan if they would have been happy to take an away series draw with S.Africa a couple of months ago and you might be lucky to have your wrist in tact, let alone a badly chewed hand.
Here was a chance for a positive English building block going into the final match, not only to fire the team up the controversial world rankings or to win a much needed away series but by gaining confidence towards the greatest prize of all at the end of the year, The Ashes. The one series that grabs the public's attention and unites all walks of life, Cricket fan or not.
When Andrew Strauss won the toss and elected to bat first at The Wanderers in J'Berg he must have had little doubt that it was the correct thing to do already leading 1-0. The right decision to not only maintain the lead but push home the advantage and even win 2-0. He must have believed that having taken into account all local conditions and advice from the backroom staff and fellow players that batting first was the only answer.
The sparce opening day crowd cheered upon hearing the toss with his opposite man Smith a much relieved Springbok thinking next years Christmas was already upon us and odds of a drawn series falling by the minute.
So Andrew, why did you not learn that you didn't need to gamble? England have had their fair share of inconsistent, dull, poor and good captains over the past fifteen years for you to draw experience on? From the positive but astute Michael Vaughan who not only battled and beat the Aussies but also cried into his hadkerchief when Sidebottom was picked infront of two test hero Graham Onions. Evidently Onions was a bit jaded and needed the rest, unfortunately this was news to him. We have Nasser Hussain on the other side of the spectrum who seems unable to be personable with anyone, constantly referring to everyone by their surnames and aside from driving most of Sky Tv's viewers insane with his monosyllabic waffle he is also the captain that made the worst toss decision in history by putting an already rampant Australian team in to bat on a first test road allowing them to score freely (364-2 close day one) and march on likeunchallenged warriors to another easy Ashes win.
So why didn't you learn Andrew? After all Strauss is a very well educated and well spoken young man. He is also very well traveled and has two half Australian sons to prove it. Here is a man who has been a pretty good captain of his country with a resume including that famous little urn to prove it.
So what went wrong? Strauss decided to back his badly firing batsmen after a slight rush of blood to his South African born bonce. He obviously believed that there was a 400plus first innings score on that soon to be wet track.
The moment he decided to bat first on an unpredictable wicket, with rain due and against a team thirsty for blood with an attack packed heavy with seamers the game was all over. Anyone with an inch of gambling nous would have taken up the generous odds on offer from friendly bookmakers and made hay while the sun wasn't shining.
England have taken some heavy criticsm about their boggling selection, and fairly so. After double batting heroics from the far from lofty number 11 in two of the previous three tests by Graham Onions he was duly dropped for a leaden footed Sidebottom who tries and tries and tries but never really delivers.
Sidebottom is akin to the poker player going all in with a pair of 7's hoping he will hit a winning hand when he knows, deep down, he probably wont even win a bluff. Every now and again it comes off but more often than not its a telegraph delivery asking for the batsman to wait, wait, wait and half volley four. Send Sidebottom back to county cricket where he can clean up the mediocrity and earn a decent living.
It's time for England learnt from their errors, look forwards to the future, grab the sparce talent that is out there bowling wise and nurture it into match winning heroics. We must learn that by now Matt Prior is going to be hit and miss with his batting. Me must finally learn that Stuart Broad will never bat No.7 for England and is in danger of swapping the true all rounder white handkerchief over to the consistently over performing and never under hyped Graeme Swann.
Australia in Australia is a different kettle of fish to playing them in a transformative state in your own back yard. Just ask a certain Mr.Flintoff or the Pakistan team. It is well overdue for England and Strauss to look long and hard at their selection, tactics, stats, averages and personal belief's before the next time they take the field wearing the three lions with pride. All that can be seen currently is a small amount of wisdom arising from the small questions they are putting upon themselves. What we all want to see is a group of international players doubting themselves deeply so as to come through a dark underground tunnel a whole lot wiser.