Greats declare 'sky is the limit' for England

While the Australian press has been dominated by the news of skipper Michael Clarke’s retirement, the UK media have given just as much coverage to their triumphant team’s successful quest to regain the Ashes urn.

Winning the Ashes was a formality on Saturday and it took England just 10.2 overs on day three of the fourth Test, with some newspapers choosing to get a head start on the festivities in their Saturday morning editions, when the hosts still three wickets shy of victory.

England greats Michael Vaughan and Sir Ian Botham have tipped big things for the Ashes winners following their innings-and-78-run triumph at Trent Bridge, suggesting Alastair Cook’s men could become a “golden generation”.

“This is an England team of huge promise who have achieved success far quicker than I ever expected,” former skipper Vaughan wrote in his column for The Telegraph.

“Now the challenge is to build a real legacy and go down as our greatest team. They are a young side with even the senior players having a few more years left in them so the chance is there to become a golden generation.

“In Joe Root, we are looking at a batsman who I think will go down as our greatest player if he continues in this manner. The way he moves from position to position in the order, or effortlessly goes from Test to 50-over and Twenty20 cricket takes real skill. He is consistent in all formats, which is the mark of greatness in the modern era.”

Botham said the “sky was the limit” now for England.

“England have been magnificent. They have shown better skills with bat, ball and in the field,” he wrote in The Mirror.

“Root has gone on to a different level and is arguably the best batsman in the world right now, but I don’t think it will be too long before Stokes and others are the best at what they do.

“The talent in England has long been there, and now there is a depth of players they can pick from that should sustain things for years to come. The sky is the limit for this group of players.

“The senior players will be around for a few years yet, the captain is going nowhere, and the young players will just get better and better so who knows how far they can go.”

The Telegraph’s Scyld Berry labelled captain Cook, who was under pressure to keep his job after his team’s Ashes whitewash in Australia in 2013-14, the lynchpin of England’s victory.

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Alastair Cook with his daughter Elsie // Getty Images

“Self-effacing as well as dutiful, Cook at the presentation ceremony sought to give credit to everyone – his players, the coaches and backroom staff – bar himself. But he was the pivot,” Berry wrote.

“If Cook had cracked at the end of the last Ashes series and resigned, as so many willed him to do, or if he had given in after his long dark night of the soul at Headingley during the losing Test against Sri Lanka last year, Joe Root would probably have been England’s captain – not the leading run-scorer on either side, or number one in the world Test rankings.

“Cook’s continuity bred the stability that bred success.”

Celebrations aside, the British media were also full of praise for Australia’s outgoing captain, with journalists and former players paying tribute to Clarke’s leadership and batting in an international career spanning more than a decade.

Watch: McGrath and Warne pay tribute to Clarke 

“He told the players in the morning, announced it to the media after the match and spoke graciously and gracefully about England’s victory and his own time as a player and captain,” former England captain Michael Atherton wrote in The Times.

“He was in tears at the presentation ceremony, but can look back on a decorated career. He has played the game with style and elegance and has been a fine player and captain for a long time.”

The Australian press also celebrated Clarke’s career, with New Corp’s Ben Horne saying “he will go down as one of the finest players and captains Australia has ever seen”

"His leadership throughout the Phillip Hughes tragedy was extraordinary and will forever form part of his legacy,” Horne wrote.

"But losing such a close mate has taken its toll.

"In a different respect, Clarke’s against-the-odds fightback to lead Australia through the World Cup has left him physically spent."

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