December 20, 2006	Wednesday	Ziqa'ad 28, 1427

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SYDNEY, Dec 19: Australians were revelling in their Ashes win on Tuesday with the country's political leader and newspapers gushing over the team's success.

Cricket-loving Prime Minister John Howard led the tributes, describing the victories over England in the first three Tests as ‘magnificent’.

“On behalf of every Australian I am sure, I congratulate Australian captain Ricky Ponting and the boys for a magnificent victory,” Howard told reporters.

“Winning back the Ashes after only 16 months has really warmed every Australian heart, and they've done a fantastic job in our name.”

Australia's series-clinching victory in the third Test in Perth on Monday was front-page news in every major newspaper.

“It's Ours” read the banner headline in the Daily Telegraph.

The Sydney tabloid even devoted part of its daily editorial to the match by poking fun at England's landslide defeat.

“So much for the idea of a close and hard-fought contest,” the editorial read.

“As sporting slaughters go, this was comprehensive.”

The Australian broadsheet newspaper adopted a more diplomatic stance, focusing more on Australia's relief at regaining the Ashes than England's lame defence.

“Sound the trumpets, raise the flags, dust off the gongs and discard the sackcloth: Ricky Ponting's Australians have won back the Ashes and all is right with the world,” read the front-page lead.

The Sydney Morning Herald said the victory had taken some of the pain from last year's loss but added that Australians would not be completely satisfied unless they won the series 5-0, emulating the 1920-21 team who achieved the only previous whitewash in Ashes history.

“Now for a 5-nil drubbing,” read the front-page headline, while the back-page headline read: “Revenge is a dish best served... rolled.”

The Herald’s cricket columnist Peter Roebuck singled out Ponting as the man most responsible for Australia's win. His leadership was heavily scrutinised after the last series loss but Roebuck said he had silenced his critics.

“He has been the campaign's outstanding figure, sooner or later his achievements as captain will be acknowledged,” Roebuck wrote.

The Australian's cricket columnist Mike Coward said England's weak capitulation had undermined their success of last year, which now seems a distant memory.

“History shows England has an incredibly destructive habit of taking much too seriously isolated success,” Coward wrote.

“They might have won plaudits, bonuses and gongs 15 months ago, but they learned nothing about the qualities and character required to maintain success.”

Meanwhile, Andrew Flintoff's future as England captain was questioned by British media on Tuesday following his side's humbling Ashes defeat.

Flintoff was chosen as captain for the series ahead of Andrew Strauss with regular skipper Michael Vaughan ruled out due to injury.

“Is it over for Fred's captaincy?,” said the Daily Express, suggesting Flintoff could be cast as a lame-duck skipper for the rest of the Ashes series if Vaughan was reinstated as one-day captain when the squad is announced on Thursday.

The Times stuck with the captaincy theme under the back-page headline: “Vaughan will rush back as captain for one-day series”.

Most papers ridiculed England's performance in losing the first three Tests.

The front page of the Daily Telegraph's sport section said:

“England have been made to look like dingbats but Ponting leads

a magnificent team”.

“England waited 16 years and 15 days to regain the Ashes in the glorious summer of 2005. The historic urn was in England's possession for just one year, 96 days and 12 hours and Ricky Ponting's team needed only 86 hours and 40 minutes playing time to snatch the Ashes back,” the Telegraph added.

More criticism for Flintoff came from the Guardian which said: “Misfiring Flintoff sums up England's Ashes”.

A sub-heading beside a column written by former England seamer Mike Selvey read: “Flintoff blazed yesterday but his batting has gone to pot and he has lost the art of wicket-taking”.

“Perthetic”, was the back-page headline in popular tabloid The Sun.

“Freddie Flintoff's Perth flops handed back the urn to Australia after just 15 days of Test cricket Down Under, the shortest defence in history,” the Sun said

The Daily Mirror published a photo of a beleaguered England captain Andrew Flintoff walking back to the pavilion after being dismissed on the final day, under the headline: “Dump Dunc”.

Inside, it dedicated an entire page to “How Fletcher lost the Ashes”.

“England went back to the future in spectacular style to lose the Ashes at the earliest available opportunity and start wild Australian celebrations that made Trafalgar Square in 2005 look like a tea party,” the tabloid said.

Inside, Geoffrey Boycott said that Fletcher's run as English coach should end following the World Cup, and suggested that the search for a new coach should begin in the English summer.

The Independent's back page was adorned with a photo of Andrew Symonds carrying Shane Warne after the Ashes were clinched, next to an article under the headline: “Fletcher's job on line after Ashes failure”.

“Poor preparation and selection have been cited as two of the principal reasons for England's disappointing show in Australia,” the newspaper said.—Agencies