Betting on who will replace Duncan Fletcher and/or Michael Vaughan will start inevitably in the aftermath of England’s defeat at the hands of South Africa yesterday. Cricket betting will no doubt take a dive with the money going more towards football now that the premiership is coming to an end.

So what on earth happened yesterday? This is a side that we have seen come back in Sydney over the winter from being down and out to being fierce scrappers that will never lie down. Well, they really rolled over yesterday and I had bet on an England win - even though I had it billed as a close one!

It was a sad sight to see our national team booed off the pitch but what can you say? It’s difficult to see how this defeat can be put solely at the feet of the players. If you look at the way we batted, there was noone who took the attack to the South African bowlers and so they were never pressured. The South Africans, by contrast, bowled tightly but, more importantly, got right in the faces of the England bowlers from the first over. So the difference? A Plan. We didn’t have one. We had no strategy to win that game.

I find it sad that in most sports, the innovation comes from abroad, rather than us , England in particular, developing our own style and others trying to emulate it. The Aussies have taken one day cricket to another level through aggressive and inventive batting (that’ll be from you Mr Ghilchrist!). The All Blacks rugby team have always developed new ways of taking rugby forward, even after they lost their way a for a short perod at the end of the nineties. Brazil have their beautiful style of football which leaves us in the shade.

 Betting on a new coach for the England Cricket Team can start but as Ian Botham and Nassar Hussein muted last night after the match, if Fletcher goes, his replacement will need to be be a good’un. Keep Betting!