Twenty20 insights into the Ashes tour

West Indies' Shivnarine Chanderpaul, center right, celebrates winning the match with his teammate Ramnaresh Sarwan, center left, beside Australia's Mitchell Johnson, left, during the Group C Twenty20 World Cup cricket match between Australia and the West Indies at The Oval cricket ground in London, Saturday June 6, 2009. AP Photo/Matt Dunham

It is still cool and only occasionally sunny in England even though high summer is just a few days away. The Ashes are light years away for the Poms and the Australians can’t wait for the ‘big stuff’ to start.

The World Twenty20 Cup is taking centre stage while the Australians relax and train in the midlands, far from the public eye or the tabloid camera.

Leicester is famous for the National Gas Museum and Stilton cheese among other things, the two may not be completely unrelated.

Hopefully Ricky and the squad have taken advantage of the down time to combine net practice with the joys of the local culture.

They may be out of sight up there but they are not forgotten by the local pundits. The English public and press have been buoyed by the Australian defeats even though the style of cricket is as far removed from the forthcoming Test matches as yoghurt is to whipped cream.

The Poms don’t like us, well, more accurately they don’t like Australian teams or individuals winning any type of sport, and the wheel is turning.

Andy Murray fever has surpassed Tim Henman’s long forgotten temperature in a nanosecond after he sent James Blake packing in straight sets at the Queens Club in south London.

He’s the first British (as opposed to English) winner since 1938 at their home tournament!

The Olympics are being constructed, the British Lions are undefeated in Africa, Jensen Button has usurped Lewis Hamilton in a blaze of Formula One majesty, and both the British Grand Prix and Wimbledon commence in a week’s time.

The indigenous fans will go ballistic if Button and Murray win in close succession.

England have been a little erratic in this cricket of the ephemera, after the loss against world powerhouse The Netherlands (flat country with windmills just to the right of Norfolk) and then a win under pressure against Pakistan.

After the Holland game the media and camp followers reacted as only these soccer loving lads do: dejection, criticism and despair. The win two days later brought elation, praise and eternal hope.

A victory against an Asian country in the shortest form was surely a pointer to an Ashes win, and coupled with Australia’s losses, the bookmakers installed England as clear favourites.

Logic was the loser, if it was ever in the game, but always remembering that Britain won more medals at the Beijing Olympics than Australia. QED.

England’s subsequent dramatic win against the defending title holders at Lord’s not only succeeded in eliminating India but ramped up the confidence quotient even further.

Looking back to the surprise 2005 Ashes result, it may have been the self belief gained when England won a mere Twenty20 game early in the tour that changed the course of their dreadful record since 1987.

This northern summer has begun vibrantly for the home team and timidly for the visitors, but can Twenty20 cricket really provide a form guide for Ashes?

Ricky Ponting thinks not, while Andrew Strauss is a true believer.