Pizzas galore!

Nobody would suggest that to bring Hughes down Marsh and Lillee deliberately underperformed in that series (Lillee in fact took a hatful of wickets) but they clearly couldn't wait for Hughes to be removed and Greg Chappell - unavailable for the tour for personal reasons - to return as captain.

This is a shocking tale well told and, if half of what we read here is true, two Australian legends should hang their heads in shame.

Australia's clear-out

An interesting conversation was overheard ahead of the first Test match. Geoff Miller, England's national selector, bumps into his opposite number Andrew Hilditch. Greetings are exchanged. Then Hilditch to Miller: "You wouldn't mind helping us pick our team, would you?" A clue to the state of mind in the Australian camp.

Then comes their selection, presumably without Miller's input. And quite a surprise it is. Alright, Brett Lee was injured and would surely have played. But the omission of Stuart Clark looked like a statement of intent - that Australia must put the past behind them and move on, giving the younger generation its chance. But it looked like a muddle, as none of Australia's three fast bowlers playing in this game had had more than one warm-up match.

The upshot is that seven of this Australia side have never played an Ashes Test before. That represents a major clear-out. You probably have to go back to the Packer era for a time when an Australia team changed so much between England series. Should they lose, it gives Australia's management a very good excuse as to why. Unlike 2005, when a team of champions was inexplicably laid low.

THE LIST: TEN FAMOUS CRICKETING EVENTS IN WALES

1 Garry Sobers becomes first man to hit six sixes in an over, Swansea 1968

2 England host their first Ashes Test outside England, Cardiff 2009

3 Bangladesh cause one of biggest upsets in a one-day international by beating Australia, Cardiff 2005

4 Glamorgan for the only time in their history clinch the county championship title on home soil, Cardiff 1969

5 Clive Lloyd scores the then fastest double-century in history in 120 minutes, Swansea 1976

6 Andrew Symonds hits world record 16 sixes in an innings, for Gloucestershire at Abergavenny 1995

7 Birth in Swansea in 1938 of Tony Lewis, only Welsh-born cricketer to captain England

8 Glamorgan win their first match after joining the county championship, Cardiff 1921; they still finished bottom of the table that season

9 Wally Hammond scores the last of his four triple-centuries at Newport in 1939

10 Geoff Boycott scores 20 off 88 balls but England still beat New Zealand in the first ever one-day international staged at a non-Test match venue, Swansea 1973