Hail the new sporting 'Invincibles'

Meanwhile across the pond the New England Patriots have gone through a complete NFL season winning every game - a rare occurrence and the first time a team has had an undefeated season for 35 years.

It is interesting to compare and contrast these two great teams because whilst in some respects their approaches have been very different, there are also similarities which other teams could learn from.

The New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick has been a controversial character through much of his long coaching career and never more so than when he was fined $500,000 - the maximum allowed by NFL rules - for illegally filming the signals of New York Jets coaches earlier in the 2007 season.

The Patriots players stood behind their coach, a position that is crucial in American Football in deciding tactics before and (especially) during the game, when he orchestrates the set plays from the sidelines. So the Patriots regular season success in the NFL can be directly attributable to the skills of Belichick.

After the record-breaking game against the Giants Belichick, when asked about how he felt when his team went behind in the game, said: 'We have been behind before and these guys as a football team have made plays when we needed to make them.'

Having the ability to win from behind is one of the crucial requirements of a truly great team and the role of the coach in helping his team to recover from setbacks is crucial.

Australia's invisible coaches

Whilst the role of the coach is crucial in American Football in cricket it is not so straightforward.

The most successful Australian coach of all time was John 'Buck' Buchanan, who had an ambivalent relationship with some of his players during his eight years in charge. The best description of how this coach worked comes from Steve Waugh, who was captain in the early part of the Buchanan era. 'I never meddled in his theories, ideas and concepts, and he never interfered with the way that I ran the team…all decisions on the field were mine.'

Shane Warne was more outspoken: 'I'm a big believer that the coach is something you travel in to get to and from the game!' Warne did not like anyone interfering in any aspect of his sport and he was a big enough star to get away with his dismissiveness of Buchanan.

But when Waugh retired it was Ricky Ponting who got the nod from the selectors, not Warne. A captain of a cricket team 'calls all the plays' in American sports parlance. On the field, when the opposition batsmen are putting on a big partnership, it is the captain's duty to find a way of breaking it. This is not just about deciding who bowls and from which end. It is also about the captain's insight and hunches and, crucially, how he takes advice.

The photograph accompanying this article was taken on that fatal (for England) final day at the Adelaide Test match in December 2006. Warne and Ponting were plotting England's downfall together and whilst we can't know what they were saying the tactics worked and the coach, back in the dressing room, played no part.

Coming from behind

One of the attractions of Test cricket is that there is (nearly) always the opportunity to come from behind and turn a game around. Sri Lanka beat England recently at Kandy despite having been 42-5, all out for 188 and conceding a first innings deficit of nearly 100.

The good sides, with the best captains, have the capacity to do this whereas fragile and ill-lead sides seem to be able to drag defeat from the jaws of victory. After their loss in the first Test in Australia, India are struggling with an inexperienced captain in Anil Kumble and a tyro coach in Gary Kirsten. Up against them is Ricky Ponting who has managed the transition from one great team and has quietly built another.

And do you know who the Aussie coach is? Somewhere in the background is the anonymous figure of one Tim Nielsen - a man who has a 6/2 record in One Day Internationals and three wins out of three in Test matches since he took over as Australia's coach.

Now that really must be the best job in sport at the moment - although if Belichick can win his fourth Super Bowl with the Patriots on 3rd February he might disagree.