Vaughan faces defining winter after difficult summer

Advances by Flintoff and Anderson give England captain hope of attaining consistency on tours to Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and West Indies

The press box at Edgbaston was rampant with speculation on the last day of the first Test against South Africa. Everybody suspected something was awry when the England selectors refused to announce their squad for the second Test at Lord's until the conclusion of a hastily arranged press conference. Nasser Hussain had not looked himself during the drawn match but few expected the England captain to relinquish the position he had held with pride and passion for four years.

After their remarkable victory at The Oval - a win that levelled an intoxicating Test series against South Africa - success in both one-day tournaments and two triumphs over Zimbabwe in a one-sided Test series, it would appear as though the transfer of power from Hussain to Michael Vaughan had been seamless. It was not.

Despite these results the England team are still coming to terms with Hussain's impetuous decision and their cricket is far too inconsistent for anyone to truly believe they are making significant strides forward. The mood of a nation was lifted after Marcus Trescothick's double-hundred, Graham Thorpe's century and Andrew Flintoff's awesome innings of 95 at The Oval, but South Africa were the better team for the vast majority of the five Test matches.

England have had little time to rest before their winter tours. In two weeks Vaughan's squad leave for Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, where they will play five Test matches and six one-dayers. Then, after Christmas and six weeks at home, they will depart for the West Indies.

At the conclusion of this tour Vaughan should have a good idea of where his side lie. However, the captain will have little time to sit down and think because only days after returning from the Caribbean, England's busiest summer of international cricket begins with a Test series against New Zealand

To be fair to the selectors and Vaughan, whose development as a captain has been gradual rather than convincing, England were never able to field their strongest bowling attack in 2003. Injuries prevented Andrew Caddick and Simon Jones from playing, and by the sixth Test of the summer England had used nine specialist fast bowlers.

Even though his 10 wickets cost him 59 runs apiece, Flintoff was Vaughan's steadiest bowler and it was the progress made by the Lancashire all-rounder which gave the cause for greatest encouragement.

Though inconsistent, James Anderson advanced as an international bowler. A five-wicket haul on his Test debut was followed by a hat-trick against an exciting Pakistan one-day team, and everyone thought England had unearthed a world-beater. Tiredness caused by a gruelling international schedule hampered the 21-year-old's development but 26 wickets in your first summer of Test cricket is still a pretty impressive start.

The man responsible for knocking England's bowlers out of their stride was the South African captain, Graeme Smith. At 22, many thought the opener was too young to lead an international team and that his side would fall apart following their humiliating defeat to England in the NatWest Series final.

Smith, however, had other ideas and set off on a run-scoring spree that brought comparisons with the great Sir Don Bradman. In three innings the tall left-hander plundered England's bowlers for 621 runs. Two double-hundreds gave his captaincy confidence, but it was Makhaya Ntini's 10-wicket haul at Lord's which put South Africa ahead. The sight of the fast bowler falling to his knees and kissing the pitch after claiming his 10th victim was my moment of the summer.

Poor pitches at Trent Bridge and Headingley made the next two Tests intriguing. Fighting centuries from Hussain and South Africa's Gary Kirsten ensured the matches were shared.

Vaughan used his team's defeat in the fourth Test at Headingley as the stage on which to launch an attack on county cricket and its failure to produce players of international calibre. And it did not take long for the England captain to gain support from Bob Willis and Michael Atherton, two of his predecessors, who set themselves up - with three others - as the Cricket Reform Group.

To improve the standard of English cricket the five want to reduce the number of counties, de-professionalise a significant part of the county game and increase the role played by club cricket. It will be interesting to see what comes of their planned meetings with the England and Wales Cricket Board.

If it were not for the criticism of those up above, county cricket would have been deemed to have had a good year. Sussex ensured interest in the the County Championship by winning it for the first time in their 164-year history, and Gloucestershire gave John Bracewell - who leaves the West Country to coach New Zealand - the perfect going-away present when they demolished Worcestershire in the C&G Trophy final.

However, the biggest plus for the domestic game was the success of Twenty20 cricket. Helped by good marketing and excellent weather, a younger and more family-orientated crowd were lured into county grounds to lap up 20-over cricket. They obviously enjoyed the fare because over 250,000 spectators attended the 45 zonal matches and a full house at Trent Bridge turned up to see the Surrey Lions walk away as champions.

Adam Hollioake's side also won the National League but these two successes could not make up for the disappointment of failing to win the County Championship for the fourth time in five years. The departure of Ian Ward, the retirement of Alec Stewart, rumours of unrest because of the club's policy of rotating players and the need to cut salaries suggest we may be witnessing the end of a dynasty.

However, a closer look at the summer gives a good indication of the problems facing England. Not one of the County Championship's top six run-scorers and only one of the four leading wicket-takers is eligible to play for England. Well over 50 overseas players have been used by the 18 counties this summer and one must wonder whether the £3.5m spent on them would be better off being used to improve English cricketers.