England v Australia: Stop moaning, we should enjoy the Aussie angst while we can That, strictly, is Test cricket. But this series has its roots in the restructuring of the Ashes Test series, which means that next year there will be back-to-back series, home and away. That is so as to break the cycle whereby World Cups have followed Ashes away series, with all their attendant fatigue and misery for England (World Cups that is - the last Ashes away series went rather well). So instead of an Ashes series before the next World Cup in 2015 in Australia and New Zealand, England will now play five one-day internationals. And this current series is a little thank you. Quite why there has been so much outrage I'll never know. For one thing: England are country miles better than Australia at the moment! How can anyone in this country have too much of beating them? Just remember all those years of pain! In fairness there was a period when the relevance of the Ashes was being questioned. We weren't putting up much of a fight. Australia looked to India for more of a game, and more dollars of course. Now is payback time. Is it really too much? Greed and sound commercial sense are easily placed in the same drawer. Jonathan Trott said recently: "You want it to be special. The public can sniff these things out and they know when it's a little bit too much. He's right. But is there any sign of that actually being the case? Sell-outs reign. Remember that some people can only get to one of these games. To them it is special. Most of those crying "overkill" are commentators who watch every game. Australia also came here in 2010 for another sneaky five-match ODI series. The grounds were as full then as they have been - or supposed to have been in the case of the rained off Edgbaston match - this time. It will be a shock if they are not packed for all 10 of those Ashes Tests. The doom-mongers warned similarly about New Zealand coming over here to play rugby too often. They said that we should only see the Haka occasionally. The Kiwis do get a little too sanctimonious about it, but it's still great theatre. I don't think too many rugby fans have got to the stage where they see the All Blacks lining up for it and turn off their televisions. It's compelling sport. We want to see the best. Or at least the ones we love to beat most. For a so-called inconsequential series this one has also generated some heat. Our very own Shane Warne forgot for a moment that pots and kettles were once both black in accusing England of "an over-confidence bordering on arrogance." And then once The Cricketer magazine commissioned that arch Pom-baiter Malcolm Conn to write a piece, it was only going one way. "While England's castles turned to sand over the winter Australia were relaunching themselves in dramatic fashion, winning six of their last seven Tests," he said, before concluding: "Bowlers win matches. And Australia are developing and redeveloping a sizzling attack which, in the best Australian vernacular, should stick it up the Poms. Yeah, right. The truth is that English cricket has never had it so good. We're No.1 in the Test rankings, T20I champions and gathering an ODI side that is ideally suited to the new regulations that require a new white ball at each end (and later in the year will also permit two bouncers per over, so that the astoundingly fast and good Steven Finn can play even more merry hell). Australia always sell. But at the moment England always win. Let's enjoy...