The fast bowler will need more than a sunny personality

Exeter's memorable season that has been highlighted by Heineken Cup qualification for the first time could soon receive recognition from Stuart Lancaster.

England's final shot at redeeming an eminently forgettable winter starts tomorrow. The team that could hardly put a foot wrong for almost two years have spent the best part of three months barely putting one right, as if tumbling over in a three-legged race.

Bresnan and Finn set to come in with Panesar facing omission

Contrary to popular perception, England have managed to win one-day tournaments in Asia. There was the occasion in Pakistan immediately after the 1987 World Cup when they won 3-0 in a series which nobody cared about and nobody can quite explain why it took place.

Those who are calling for immediate change in England's Test team may be disappointed. It is, of course, the convention to call for multiple sackings, a few axeings and a beheading or two when teams are defeated as comprehensively as England have been in the past month.

If ever there was a sportsman from the money-mad professional era who was guaranteed to put a smile on the face of the fans – or even the opposition – then it was Freddie Flintoff. Ebullient big-hitting, big-hearted fast bowling, smacking sixes for his father to catch in the crowd, even consoling Australia's Brett Lee at the moment of victory: this was how he will be remembered, playing as if he was still an amateur, even like the fans themselves would dream of performing.

The unique selling proposition about The Hansom Cab – an elegant Victorian boozer near Kensington High Street – is that it's been bought by Piers Morgan, the TV personality and former journalist. Mr Morgan is a curious figure: a chap who seems to revel in being disliked and to enjoy the popular consensus that he's a conceited git. By cunning and chutzpah, he has snagged himself a corner table at Planet Celebrity, advising Tony Blair, high-fiving Simon Cowell and making himself agreeable to the vice-presidents of CNN.

There will be no more opportunities for India to show why they are the world's No 1 team. Lose the third Test which starts today and the ranking they have held for almost two years will be taken away.

England great Andrew Flintoff believes the current Test side are better than the one he played in, and has tipped them to "dominate for a long time".

View From The Sofa: Botham: The Legend of '81, BBC 2

On a crowded wall of the family home in which Renzo and Robyn Vettori raised their children, there is a newspaper front page from February 1997 announcing the selection for a Test against England of their son, with the screaming headline "But he's only 18!" A few of New Zealand's smarter hacks may have felt inclined to reprise that headline when Daniel Vettori last week announced that, for now, at least, he is quitting Twenty20 and one-day cricket: "But he's only 32!" I prefer to look at it another way. Vettori's decision to forgo the lucre and glitz of the shorter forms of the game is a rare and huge victory for left-arm spin, for Test cricket and for the reputation of the greatest cricketer New Zealand has ever produced.

It was five years ago that Andrew, sorry Freddie, Flintoff ran himself into the ground bowling 50 overs at the Sri Lankans. He was captain of England, he flogged himself almost to death and he was never the same again.

Andrew Flintoff believes England need to decide this summer who their 2015 World Cup captain should be.