A long way to go for a win

I've just done some number-crunching for tomorrow's Times on how long it has been since England last beat Australia and I thought I'd give you a sneak preview:

England were on tour for 89 days before winning their first game against Australia this morning. It has been 524 days since they last beat Australia (in the fourth Test at Trent Bridge) and 576 days since they last won a one-day international against the Aussies. In that period, England have tried 38 different players in their Test and one-day sides (17 of them have only played one-day cricket), which maybe explains the lack of any consistency. Only two members of the last side to beat Australia in a one-day international remain (Strauss and Flintoff).

I have also totted up the number of miles that England have travelled in order to play Australia and lose before today. Nottingham-London-Jaipur-London-Perth-Canberra-Sydney-Adelaide-Brisbane-Adelaide-Perth-Melbourne-Sydney-Melbourne-Hobart-Brisbane-Adelaide-Perth-Sydney makes a grand total of 32,056 miles. No wonder they look tired.