CELEBRATION TIME: The Australian players are a happy lot after Stuart Clark (right) ended England's resistance. — Photo: AP

BRISBANE : Two spectres watched England's funeral and to be frank Andrew Flintoff's team would have been better off without their presence as it lost to Australia by 277 runs and sought solace in its improved second innings performance of 370 in 100 overs, the highest fourth innings in the Gabba's history.

The first ghostly figure was its erstwhile captain Michael Vaughan practising assiduously, apparently mobile despite his succession of knee operations and ready to offer advice and good wishes to Flintoff on demand.

Flintoff used to say that "Michael is our captain and he will take charge as soon as he is fit" but now he makes pointed remarks about his own appointment being for the whole series even if Vaughan returns.

Looking tense

Flintoff looked tense when the match ended after 91 minutes on the fifth day, which is unusual for a cricketer with a ready smile; the only conclusion was that he felt pressure on all sides. He is supposed to be the man who keeps Steve Harmison happy and that is clearly not working.

He says he consults Vaughan — "as a friend" — but he must wonder how soon Vaughan will be invited to take back the captaincy and, of course, there is the presence in the side of Andrew Strauss who may think he is unlucky not to have the baton since he won the recent series against Pakistan.

The other spectral figure is Troy Cooley, an Australian who was the England bowling coach until the end of the Ashes series and given credit for the improvements in all the fast bowlers, particularly Harmison. Now he advises the Aussies.

In this match Harmison has become a by-word for inaccurate bowling but all around I hear voices saying that his problems are not new and that he has not performed properly for a year. Kevin Shine, the new bowling coach, has not been able to put him right, but it may be a task beyond ordinary men.

What is it with Harmison? His faults lie not in his wrist, his shoulders, nor his action but in his head. Why would any man who is blatantly 6ft 6in put in all the record books that he is 6ft 4in? Why is he homesick? Why did he choose cricket when he wanted to be a football star? Why does he not try to impose himself on the batsman?

Find those answers and you will solve many of the problems for Harmison and England.

One man claims to know. Dennis Lillee, famous fast bowler and probably the best coach of his successors in the world, says Harmison should call him because he has the solution to the seven for 12 bowler who turned into a one for 177 bowler.

Flintoff says Harmison must work hard to rediscover his flair but there is little time before the second Test which begins in Adelaide on December 1 and if he does not there is always the possibility that Duncan Fletcher, the coach, will replace him — but more likely James Anderson, another enigma — with the smiling Sikh Monty Panesar to weed out batsmen on a pitch dedicated to their well-being.

Ricky Ponting hinted at an unchanged side as he was given the `Man of the Match' award for his aggregate of 256 runs but there is a chance Australia will leave out a quick bowler and bring back Stuart MacGill.

MacGill, Shane Warne, Panesar and Ashley Giles all in the same match? That might be worth watching.

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