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“Chaos reigns - Poms in a mess.” The Sydney Morning Herald headline did not augur well on the day that a former England one-day cricketer - who has helped South Africa to challenge Australia for the title of the best team in the world - gave warning that the best organised side will win the Ashes this summer.

Jeremy Snape, the former Northamptonshire, Gloucestershire and Leicestershire off spinner who played in ten one-day internationals before joining South Africa, initially as a consultant in England last summer but now as performance coach, speaks with some authority.

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He has a master's degree in sports psychology, runs his own consultancy, Sporting Edge, advising in business as well as sport, and so impressed Graeme Smith, the South Africa captain, when he was coaching Rajasthan Royals in the Indian Premier League last year that he wanted him to work with his national team. Since then, South Africa have won Test series in England and Australia, leaving Snape in a strong position to assess where the teams stand after a winter in which Australia lost a home series for the first time in 16 years and England lost their captain and head coach.

“I'm not sure what's going on in England at the moment, but I think that whoever is the best organised and the strongest mentally, both on and off the field, will probably take the Ashes, so that has got to be their focus in the weeks ahead,” Snape said.

“The thing about the Australians is that they don't stay down for very long, whether it's in a conversation over a beer or in an Ashes campaign, so I think you can pretty much guarantee that they will come back strongly from this defeat.

“They are having to rethink a few of their plans and blood some youngsters to fill the void left by some of the great players who have retired recently, and that is not an easy process. Australia are in a transition phase. When people talk about Australia, there's this subconscious message about them being unbeatable and we've got to remember when those beliefs were formed.

“They were formed five or ten years ago, when they were the biggest force in world cricket.There are only a few players left from that era so you have to be careful what you build the Aussies up to be now.”