By Doug Booth

Former Australian Prime Minister Paul Keating described the country's economic woes of 1991-92 as "the recession we had to have".

In many ways, the loss of the Ashes in 2005 may be the recession Cricket Australia had to have to lift the sport into the new millennium. The inquest into what went wrong has already opened.

Perhaps now skipper Ricky Ponting, coach John Buchanan, chairman of selectors Trevor Hohns and CEO James Sutherland will take a good, hard look at the grass roots of the sport Down Under.

The fall from grace, the plummet from the peak was always going to happen one day, of course.

But no one predicted it would happen against an England team which still had a lot of catching up to do, 'experts' perceived before the tour started.

Former Australia captain Richie Benaud, the doyen of cricket commentators, was one of the closest to predicting an upset.

"I believe this will be a high-class Ashes Series and England have a real chance of winning," he wrote in Australia's Inside Edge magazine a month before the team left for England.

"First, the England bowling attack must start fit, and remain fit, and second they must continue to bowl as well as they have during the past 12 months, and they must hold their catches."

Wise words and so accurate, just like Freddie Flintoff and his team of quicks throughout the five-Test spectacle.

But another former skipper, Ian Chappell, was way off the mark.

"Despite England's considerable improvement in the past year and the fact that they are playing at home, Australia will win the Ashes Series comfortably," he wrote in the same magazine.

So what went wrong?

Why have the modern-day invincibles, the world champions, been found sadly lacking in a sport they have dominated for more than a decade?

Let's start at the top.

Ricky Ponting has not shown any of the leadership qualities of his predecessors.

In fact, when the chips were down before the start of the fifth and final Test at The Oval, he came out with the remarkable comment of: "Don't blame me if we lose the Ashes."

Excuse me, Ricky, you are the captain.

Ponting's nickname is Punter but not once have we seen his love of gambling emerge out in the middle.

His field placings have been haphazard, his motivational skills almost non-existent.

Increasingly, he has turned to Shane Warne for guidance on this tour.

Some may ask why "Hollywood" Warne is not the skipper - he is certainly a brilliant cricketer, one of the top three Australia have produced along with Sir Donald Bradman and Dennis Lillee.

Without Warne this northern summer, England's task would have been much easier. But the entire defence of the Ashes was a disaster waiting to happen.

Right from the training camp in Brisbane in June, when several key players,

including Warne, did not front because they were busy earning a bit extra in

county cricket.

The tour schedule was a farce. Preparations included a washed-out match against Scotland a week before the fourth Test at Trent Bridge.

England have been aggressive in the field, Australia have been the opposite.

It has prompted former leg-spinner Kerry O'Keefe to criticise their over-friendliness.

"At the moment they lack mongrel," he said on Channel Seven's Sportsworld program on Sunday.

"Australian cricket teams are dominant when they are not liked. We have seen Flintoff hitting Brett Lee into the next county and they were smiling at each other."

The future of one-dimensional coach Buchanan must also be in doubt.

Before the series he expressed an interest in staying in the role until the 2007 World Cup.

But his inability to introduce change could be his downfall. The problem is who can Australia replace him with?

Most of the contenders are coaching other countries - Greg Chappell (India), Tom Moody (Sri Lanka) and Bennett King (West Indies).

But the good news is Rod Marsh will be back on home soil later this year, after he has given England the tools to take on and beat his own country.

Traitor? Not really, but don't do it again - and bring back that Tasmanian bowling coach Troy Cooley with you from the English Academy.

Cooley comes from the same Launceston club as Ricky Ponting, so maybe it is time to eat humble pie and learn from the English - or rather what Marsh has been showing them for the past four years.

Now fast bowling is what the Aussies have been good at.

Lillee and Damien Fleming would be ideal to develop young pace bowlers and they must be appointed in time for this summer's contests against West Indies and South Africa.

The good news is that the Ashes urn will make the journey halfway round the world in a little over 14 months' time when the two countries spar against each other again, this time Down Under.

But whether they will go back with the holders England only time will tell.