SORRY, but I spent yesterday morning thinking that I’d missed something. Had England won the Ashes? That’s the way it seemed with all the headlines in the papers and the gibes I was getting from cricket fans. I’ve hardly been able to stop at a traffic light without somebody winding down a window and shouting: “79 all out.”

Well, I have a message for all you England supporters. Enjoy it while you can. You’ve been waiting a long time to give Australia the kind of beating we copped in the Twenty20 international match on Monday night. England batted well, bowled well and fielded well, so fair play. A deserved victory. But Australia will be disappointed. And we’ll be back.

Australia are not the best side in the world in Test and one-day cricket without good reason. We have the odd session where things do not go our way, and we lose occasionally. We are not perfect and know we never will be. Over a period of time, though, we win more times than we lose. It will take a big effort by England to change that.

If England can keep up the momentum, intensity and pressure of Monday through the coming weeks then a couple of great series lie ahead, in one-day and five-day cricket. If they don’t, then Australia will maul them and overhaul them. I just don’t think that people should read too much into what was basically a 20-overs exhibition match designed to have fun and entertain the crowd.

I am not taking anything away from England, who won fair and square. They are a good team and have improved over the past few years but, on this occasion, as Michael Vaughan acknowledged, everything went their way. I wonder if the captain might even be a little bit worried. There is no point using up too much luck too early in a long campaign.

Australia will probably get more out of the game than England. That might sound odd because England are bound to draw confidence, but for Australia it is a wake-up call early in the tour. Knowing the guys as I do they will not be too worried and that little bit of hurt at losing to the old enemy will spur them to greater efforts during the NatWest Series.

I did not see much of our collapse at the Rose Bowl. While I was there to see my mates in the squad for the first time since they arrived, I left at the end of the England innings to get home and see the kids before bedtime. I was reading stories to them in one room and nipping into another to try to keep up with events.

Before anybody thinks that I’m playing down the game because of the result, I should point out what I wrote in my column in The Times on Monday morning. I said that events at the Rose Bowl would have no bearing on the Ashes, and this is why I think England supporters and a few sports editors are getting carried away. They are just putting more pressure on their own team.

I’m all for supporting your own country, but there needs to be a sense of perspective. There are going to be some disappointed people if England fail to keep playing as well as they did the other night. It is a lot to ask for them to maintain that level and the expectation now could work against them.

Having said that, it is good for cricket to receive so much attention. Being in England for a couple of months has been a real eye-opener. I cannot remember a series — and I am talking about the Ashes now — that has been so eagerly anticipated, even in India, where the passion for the game is almost indescribable.

The priority for Australia is to get games under our belt before the main course of the Tests. I believe we will produce our best cricket when it matters most. Everything is geared up for that. If England win the one-day and Test series then people can gloat as much as they like. I know the England boys will not be getting ahead of themselves and will take this in their stride. But everybody else, my advice is to calm down.

There is a point I need to clarify. I am not losing my hair. My programme with Advanced Hair Studio is to stimulate my own hair to grow, not a strand by strand replacement. If the Barmy Army want to come up with a funny song, then great. Anything to keep people happy. As it is, I have a surprise hairstyle in mind for the first Test. Just watch this space.