Ernest - did I hear somewhere that in domestic cricket in India, participation in the one day game is now limited to the over-25s or something like that: I'm not sure what the exact ruling is.. and suspect the only authority I have for that comment is another contributer on this board.. but I must admit.. it sounds a decent idea.

Guys in the 19-25 age group are clearly very much in their formative years: going through the learning curve we've been witnessing in Flintoff of late as he's struggled to get beyond defensive, ODI bowling (learning to pitch the ball up a bit and risk doing a bit more with it) and aggressive ODI batting (partly technique: blocking the balls into gaps; parly shot selection: leaving balls that don't HAVE to be hit, refusing the riskier strokes, taking a safe 2 ahead of a riskier 4).

I guess it should do little harm in domestic cricket to allow people like Harmison, Jones and Hoggard to bowl... but I really do object to Anderson or Mahmood playing pyjama cricket anywhere, anytime: they have a lot to learn about playing real cricket.. and Gough's defensive bowling techniques for bowling at the death in a ODI are NOT what they will need to help us win the Ashes.

Same with batsmen: you might as well let Collingwood, Strauss and pietersen play all forms of the game... adding improvisational skills to their armoury so they can score in any and all situations... but the youngsters in the academy who played on the A-tour.. and the U-19 players who just performed so well... should be playing 4 day cricket and 4 day cricket alone.

Depends on your priorities really: if you give a damn about the pyjama stuff then all the above might seem a bit retrograde.. but if it's the Ashes that remain objective no 1... then I think something like the above is eventually going to be needed.