English Phoenix rises from the forlorn failure of the Ashes

It isn't true of course - even the best sportsman and teams have a bad day at the office from time to time and usually bounce back quickly. This will no doubt be the case with Australia's one day cricket team which has just improbably lost a tournament to England. But for England, at the end of a long tour and in the form of the game at which they are least adept, to win a trophy and beat the world champions was a fine performance.

England were never as bad as their Ashes disaster suggested

Good teams do not become bad teams over night and the England Test team, second in the world rankings and holders of The Ashes, did not suddenly surrender all their talents as the 2006/7 Ashes campaign went from disaster to disaster. But Australia won the mind games in that campaign so comprehensively that they ran out overwhelming and deserved winners. If sporting performance is the result of a multiplier of talent and confidence England's players had their undoubted talents reduced by declining and eventually negative self-confidence. For Australia the confidence multiplier was positive and (arguably) they had slightly the more talented line up as well. No contest.

The One Day series initially seemed to promise little for England

When they arrived at the MCG on 12th January for the first match in the tri nation tournament with Australia and New Zealand their spirits could not have been at lower ebb. The Ashes were gone. The squad had welcomed back Michael Vaughan as Captain, only for him soon to be injured again - and little else was to go right either. Kevin Pietersen was injured in the first match and played no further part in the series. Australia won comfortably at Melbourne and, although there was a fortuitous victory for England in the next match versus New Zealand, England then fell apart losing the next four matches in humiliating fashion. The something happened - England started winning again!

The rapacious Aussie media may have been the spur England needed

Australians invented tabloid journalism - one of their more successful export products - and the Aussie tabloids are merciless in their pursuit of the weak or the foolish. England's beleaguered cricket team had been treated with barely disguised contempt for months. Newspapers with headlines like 'Hopeless Poms' were hung on the door handles of the England team's hotel rooms every day. Suddenly the hurt (most notably after England's abject nine wicket loss on Australia Day) must have spurred England at last to fight back. It was not the flair and arrogance of the still absent Pietersen which turned England round, nor the cerebral leadership of the still injured Vaughan. It was the old fashioned commonsense guts and determination of Plunkett, Bell and a resurgent Flintoff - led by the great journeyman himself Paul Collingwood - which was to turn events in England's favour.

Collingwood - the first name on any England teamsheet

When Paul Collingwood first appeared on the fringes of England's international set up I for one was sceptical. He seemed the archetypical journeyman pro - good fielder, capable middle order run-getter and competent right arm trundler. But international potential - I doubted it. Collingwood may not be the most naturally gifted cricketer ever to have played for England - but there can never have been a harder trier or gutsier fighter wearing the England cap. After twenty Test matches he averages 43 with the bat (higher than Graham Gooch!) and after 112 one day international he has 2690 One Day runs at an average of 34. Add some good bowling performances and spectacular fielding and you have a man whose name now gets inked in early at all selection meetings.

Looking forward to the Cricket World Cup

England's supporters were not looking forward to the Cricket World Cup with any real confidence. The Barmy Army would be there, of course, but although a few weeks in the Caribbean sunshine is appealing after our cold winter few of us would be expecting much from England's team lingering, as they are, at eighth in the world rankings. The victory over Australia has changed all that. Realistically (and rightly) Australia are still favourites to win the tournament. But now we can at least include England as a possible along with all the other major teams rather than writing them of as distant also-rans. Indeed an England XI led by Vaughan and including Flintoff, Pietersen, Collingwood, Bell, Plunkett, Mahmood and Panesar looks good to me. If Strauss recovers his form and the noisy Nixon improves then it certainly won't lack collective talent. Multiply that talent by confidence and self-belief and who knows - England might just win the trophy. And I wouldn't have written that on Australia Day!