The confidence of the West Indies batsmen in the Durham Test was low but they didn’t apply themselves as they could have. Take Chris Gayle’s 54 from 43 balls on Sunday evening: I don’t like it when a batsman plays like that in that situation in a Test. If I was the opposition I would have been happy – it was just a matter of time before he got out.

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Richie Richardson is writing weekly for thewisdencricketer.com for the duration of the West Indies tour of England in association with the Antigua Tourist Board

I am sad that my former England colleague Chris Lewis has been found guilty of smuggling cocaine. He could have been known as one of the most talented allrounders in the world. Expectations can get the better of anyone. He knew what he was capable of, but too much was expected of Chris.

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Devon Malcolm is writing weekly for thewisdencricketer.com for the duration of the West Indies tour of England in association with the Antigua Tourist Board

It was a tough decision to leave out Symonds, but it’s an opportunity for some other blokes to take over his mantle: perhaps Marcus North can turn up to practice with a traffic cone on his head and a bit of last night’s kebab in his pocket; maybe Shane Watson can call Matt Prior a “total ****” on the radio.

With a bit of luck, there’s no reason to suppose Shane can’t get to that TV studio and back without picking up a niggle. Certainly his duels with Freddie Flintoff over who gets first shot on the MRI scanner down at Cardiff Royal Infirmary are going to be thrilling stuff.

Is it hard to replace the likes of Matty Hayden? Sure. But we’ve got young Phil Hughes up the top of the order working on his annoying cook books and constantly banging on about surfing. Simon Katich is getting religious and practising hissing swearwords out of one side of his mouth while chewing gum on the other. As a team, we can pick up the slack.

On a personal level, I was disappointed with my last trip here as Australia captain. I only had one really good public tantrum, when that bloke had the bloody cheek to run me out at Trent Bridge. I’ll be looking to improve on that, because I see myself as an ambassador for the whole nation, representing our country in England and taking advantage of the privilege of international travel. As such, I’ll be renting a two-bedroom flat in Shepherd’s Bush with 16 of my closest friends from home, drinking in the pub where we all work and moaning about how crap the weather is in London.

We need to remember that we have a duty to the game as a whole, and remember to play the game in the right spirit which, as long as we’re winning, we will be. In closing, I’d like to lead the team in a traditional Australian prayer: “Go on, you f***ing beauty.”

By Alan Tyers