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MANCHESTER England's footballers may have failed to live up to their “golden generation” tag but their much less heralded cricket counterparts may be closer to justifying the label.
While Fabio Capello's men were getting knocked out of the World Cup with a crushing 4-1 loss to Germany in the last 16 in Bloemfontein on Sunday, the England cricket team were in the process of winning the third one-day international (ODI) against Australia at Old Trafford, albeit by one wicket.
But the result gave England an unbeatable 3-0 lead in the five-match series.
It also meant they had beaten Australia in their last three meetings in all of cricket's international formats, after their win in last month's World Twenty20 final in Barbados and the 2009 Ashes Test series triumph.
England off-spinner Graeme Swann, man-of-the-match at Old Trafford with four wickets for 37 runs, has been central to all those successes.
And while he was saddened by the football team's failure, Swann told reporters here on Monday “It would be nice to think that we are the golden generation rather than the footballers but we all wanted England to do well in the World Cup and that was a big let-down.”
England have enjoyed a rapid resurgence under the leadership of captain Andrew Strauss and coach Andy Flower.
In last year's corresponding one-day series they were beaten 6-1 by Australia but victories at The Oval and Lord's this week would extend their run of ODI wins to 10 in a row.
England started to show signs of taking their one-day cricket seriously, following a team meeting called by Flower, with a run to the semi-finals of last year's Champions Trophy in South Africa that ended with a thumping defeat by eventual winners Australia.
Nevertheless, a change in approach had happened and Swann explained former Zimbabwe batsman Flower had been instrumental in altering the team's mindset.
“The great thing Andy Flower had done is to instil a confidence in everyone to back their natural ability on the big stage, like they do in the county games,” said Swann.
“That was exemplified in the (World) Twenty20. It was the way we went out, not with carefree abandon but certainly almost a joyous approach - compared with how England teams have approached Twenty20 the previous three years.”
He added “The satisfying thing for us is that we sat down 18 months ago and said we want to be number one in all formats, and asked how are we going to do it?
“We have plotted our way to this point, and everything has gone well.
“We have won the Ashes, won the World Twenty20 and won this series after just three games - which you might expect against some teams, but possibly not Australia.
“That is testament to the way we are playing.”
England though have not won a Test series 'Down Under' since Mike Gatting's men swept all before them on their tour of Australia back in 1986/87.
Strauss has been at pains to stress how the result of this series should not be used as a guide to the Ashes and Swann was in full agreement with his captain, saying “The Ashes is a different game. When you look in our changing room there are only three, four or five players involved in the Test team.
“For us to win this series is great but once November 25 comes round it will not matter if it is 5-0 in this series. When that first ball is bowled in Brisbane it is a whole new ball game.” —AFP
