The West Indies realised they had missed an opportunity when they had us by the balls.”I’m not saying that it allowed Harmison to take 7 for 12, because he bowled unbelievably well and it started a great year for him, but that partnership was one of the key reasons why we were successful in the Caribbean.”The following two Test matches followed a similar trend to the first. It was while playing a Test match at this venue in February 1986 that several England batsmen resorted to slogging because they felt it was the best way of scoring runs before a killer ball came along.But it was England who arrived in the Caribbean in February 2004 with the greater firepower. “The West Indies scored about 350 [it was actually 311] which was about par on quite a good pitch But then Fidel Edwards and Tino Best came at us. But Vaughan does not feel that it was Harmison who started this unbelievable run.”If I am being honest it was Nasser Hussain and Mark Butcher’s partnership at Sabina Park that kick-started it all,” Vaughan said. Harmison, Matthew Hoggard, Andrew Flintoff, Simon Jones and James Anderson were not the biggest names on the international cricket circuit, but they were far more imposing than those Lara had at his disposal.The match will be remembered for Harmison’s second innings figures of 7 for 12 and the West Indies being bowled out for 47. We did not know too much about their side, barring the Laras, the Chanderpauls and Sarwans, and we felt we had a decent chance of creating some history.”And boy did they create history, starting at Sabina Park, one of the most intimidating cricket grounds in the world. Sri Lanka is one of the toughest places to tour and we were lacking a couple of our key bowlers, but the fighting spirit we showed in Galle and Kandy, when we batted out for draws, was something we took into 2004.”Stephen Harmison came back into the side in the Caribbean I knew it would be pretty tough.

“I thought we had put a lot of pieces in place to develop a good side in Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. We worked very hard and started to develop a good team base and a very good work ethic. I thought that the one place where you could get the whole team together was in the gymnasium And it did bring us closer together. Some people questioned it but the harder you work on the training pitch and in the gym, the more successful you are in the middle.”I’m a big believer in hard work, whether it takes place in the gym, the nets, bowling to a keeper or doing catching practice If you put in the hard work the rewards are there for you. If you just think you can sit back and ease along, and not work on every aspect of your game, there will be a stage when the game comes back and bites your arse.”The rewards for this investment did not become immediately evident. England defeated Bangladesh comfortably, as they should, but then lost 1-0 in Sri Lanka just before Christmas last year.

Two fighting draws showed the character of the side but nobody would have predicted that this team were about to embark on the greatest winning run in the history of English cricket.”I would never have thought we would win 11 of our next 12 matches when we left Sri Lanka,” Vaughan admitted. Considering the team he captains has won 11 of the 12 Test matches it played in 2004, and on Tuesday became the first England side to win eight consecutive Test matches, it was not the most apt of questions But I thought I would ask it all the same. Sibir Energy shares changed hands again on the Alternative Investment Market yesterday, for about 23 per cent less than before trading was suspended in April.
They fell 64p to 216p a day after the Russo-British oil company agreed to fork out £15m to the Moscow tycoon Chalva Tchigirinsky, its biggest investor, for arranging a much-needed £77.5m loan package. But the tour of Bangladesh gave Vaughan and Duncan Fletcher, the England coach, the perfect stage on which to instil their principles into the side.”I wanted to make sure we were fitter,” Vaughan said. “There are a lot of things in cricket you have little control over but fitness isn’t one of them. I had noticed we had picked up a lot of injuries in the year before and put this down to a lack of fitness.”I also liked the idea of the team training and sweating together.

“The biggest was probably at Old Trafford when we bowled a barrage of short balls against the West Indies on the fourth day. I allowed it go on for too long and it could have cost us the game. It was a mistake but I think I have learnt from it.”But as in every Test bar one in 2004 – the drawn match was when Brian Lara scored 400 in Antigua – England managed to recover their composure and walk away as worthy winners.And it has been the cool, calculated and consistent way in which England have played their cricket this year which has made them such an impressive unit. Much of the sluggishness of the German economy since 1992 is due to the huge task of transforming the east of the country after unification, but a challenge of transition from a highly regulated and corporatist economy still faces the former West Germany too.5.

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