Praise be, Hallelujah and hoorah. The Ashes build up may have started.
Three conditions must be met before we can be sure, and two of them have been. Firstly, England has an injury scare thanks to someone thinking it's a good idea to put chisel jawed man mountain and reserve bowler Chris Tremlett in a boxing ring with delicate, reedy-eyed current leader of the attack Jimmy Anderson. I wonder why other countries don't select their teams in this way. Gambhir could go 12 rounds with Murali Vijay. Maybe Siddle, Ryan Harris, Hilfenhaus, Bollinger and Johnson could be persuaded to stage an all in wrestling bout with the winner taking the new ball. Zulqarnain Haider and Kamran Akmal could give each Chinese burns until one surrenders.
Secondly, Ricky Ponting, he of the piss holes in the snow for eyes and the charisma of George Dubya Bush, has fired the first salvo at a press conference today; though perhaps it was less of a salvo and more like trying to flick a frozen pea into Strauss' ear from 50 paces.
He has declared that England's batsmen will be nervous, citing their collective poor form over the summer. A decent first effort in the race to prove yourself an amnesiac numpty. And indeed, when you have Ian Bell in your side nervousness is a given. He makes chinchillas look like David Niven. There is no doubt that England's top six is short of runs. But when you're captaining a side with Marcus North and Mike Hussey in it, you'd do well consider your own batting anxieties. To collapse against Ishant Sharma, Zaheer Khan, Ojha, Harbhajan and 80s throwback Sreesanth on decent enough wickets would normally give cause for circumspection and hiding away in your room until everyone forgot you existed.
But the Ponting giveth and the Ponting taketh away. Apparently this England side is the most consistent he has played against. Perhaps he forgets the 2005 team that took on Australia on the back of an impressive run of series victories including a defeat of South Africa on their own patch.
And uncharacteristically, Ponting has reserved some actual praise for Swann, Broad and Strauss.
This is disappointing but not as glaring a mistake as his omission of the phrase "we will be targetting X". This really is a dreadful oversight. Without its banal utterance we cannot be sure that the Aussies are really up for it. We can't start the clock on the Ashes build up. Someone's got to tell him. Without meaningless, gum chewing inanities delivered with an arrogant swagger and crocodile grin we'll forget we're playing the Aussies and fly the plane straight on to Auckland.