Selectors must dig up a few diamonds

It was said, especially early on, that injuries to batsmen like Nasser Hussain, Graham Thorpe and Michael Vaughan wrecked the home team's chances. But would Thorpe and Vaughan have scored any more runs in the series than Mark Butcher and Mark Ramprakash? It's debatable, isn't it?

I think everyone was especially impressed with Butcher, who batted solidly most of the time and spectacularly in winning the Test at Headingley.

The key for him now, of course, is to build on this base and not slip back into the also-ran category. The same goes for Ramprakash.

If Butcher emerged as England's big bonus of the series then Australia's was Damien Martyn.

Don't forget, he came here as a spare batsmen and only got into the team for the first Test because Justin Langer had struggled during the warm-up games. But he looked a million dollars throughout.

It won't have been lost on England's selectors, who were forever chopping and changing their attack, that Australia fielded the same four bowlers throughout the series.

You don't need me to tell you that McGrath and Warne were brilliant. And I'm sure you could see that Jason Gillespie wasn't too far behind, even if he found wickets a little hard to come by in the last couple of Tests.

But, believe me, Brett Lee is a lot better than he showed on this trip.

Lee only got it right very occasionally over here. I'm sure he will have learnt a lot from the experience, however, and as far as I'm concerned he remains a fantastic prospect.

I predicted 3-0 and it finished 4-1 so I guess you could say I underestimated the weather, which wasn't too bad at all by English standards.

Yes, all in all you've made us Aussies feel quite at home!