Duncan Fletcher may have contributed towards England’s difficulties with aspects of selection during the first three Ashes Tests, but it seems that the coach may have scored his first own goal as far back as late last year with the publication of his book on the 2005 series.

John Buchanan, his opposite number, not only devoured Ashes Regained: The Coach’s Story, but described it as “a valuable piece of information” in the build-up to the rematch.

Buchanan, renowned for seeking inspiration from even the most obscure authors, including an ancient Chinese warrior, immediately made it mandatory reading for the rest of his coaching staff as they sought an insight into England’s 2-1 success.

The irony is both cruel and obvious. Fletcher is known for his caution when he speaks in public. He sometimes verges on paranoia of the media and is constantly wary that his words may return to haunt. Yet his ghost-written account of the memorable summer was the most revealing of the publications to follow the series.

In among explanations of the team management structure and dissection of the series as it developed, Fletcher spoke in detail about some of his work with the England players, including a fascinating evaluation of Andrew Strauss’s method to combat Shane Warne.

Fletcher also offered thoughts on the techniques and weaknesses of certain Australians including Michael Clarke, a revelation in recent weeks.

Refusing to panic into knee-jerk reactions, Cricket Australia established a six-man committee comprising Mark Taylor and Allan Border, illustrious former captains, Daryl Foster, an experienced coach, and James Sutherland, Peter Young and Geoff Allardice, leading administrators, to conduct a far-reaching review of the tour.

As an interim measure they reappointed Buchanan, whose position had come under as much scrutiny as Fletcher is facing now. For his part, Buchanan refused to hide behind the excuse of injury to Glenn McGrath at Edgbaston, the significant turning point of the series. As a first step he acknowledged that changes had to be made. “The result came as a golden opportunity,” Buchanan said. “It made me, the players, the support staff and Cricket Australia look at where we desired to be.”

He felt that he had lost day-to-day contact with players, giving them too much responsibility (or leeway) for their own games instead of taking more authority himself at practice.

Nowadays Australia spend more time training as a team, while pre-match plans are hatched in greater detail so that each bowler has a personal strategy for every batsman instead of a general approach.

They sought an all-rounder to emulate Andrew Flintoff, even if they won at Brisbane and Adelaide with six batsmen.

In a backroom reorganisation, they took on a full-time performance analyst in Richard McInnes to reproduce the work of Tim Boon (since replaced by Mark Garaway) with England. Jock Campbell, the strength and conditioning coach, left. And, perhaps most important, they poached Troy Cooley as bowling coach from the ECB.

One important constant was the decision to continue with Ricky Ponting as captain, but whether this was more work of genius than bowing to the inevitable must be a moot point. They were hardly in a position to appoint Warne, the best tactician, having sacked him as vice-captain for off-field mis- demeanours in 2000.