As usual, we'd love to hear whether you agree or disagree.

Owais Shah - 6
Ian Bell's misfortune should have been Owais Shah's gain, but his injudicious running between the wickets (Antigua) and poor shot selection (Trinidad) leaves the number three problem unsolved.

Kevin Pietersen - 6 and a half
Was labelled "Dumbslog Millionaire" after giving his first-innings wicket away at Sabina Park three runs short of a century. Was uncharacteristically subdued for the remainder of the series, although his final-day century at Trinidad set up an enthralling finish.

Paul Collingwood - 7
Has the knack of scoring centuries whenever his Test place is under threat and two in the series, plus a 96, is an excellent answer to his critics. Will be livid, however, after missing two catches at first slip in Trinidad - although he redeemed himself by holding on to a belter in the second innings.

Matt Prior - 6 and a half
Justified his recall for the Trinidad Test with a century after missing the previous game to fly home to see his his first child. A total of 74 extras in the West Indies first innings (and setting a new Test record of 52 byes conceded in the match) showed he is still not the finished article as a keeper.

Ian Bell - 4
The selectors' patience finally wore thin after two failures In Jamaica. Typically, looked in excellent touch during the first innings, but poor shot selection and concentration contributed to his demotion.

Ravi Bopara - 7
Made the most of his opportunity in Barbados by hitting a maiden Test hundred after being dropped on four and bowled as well as could be expected on a flat track. Was unlucky to lose his place for the final game.

Andrew Flintoff - 6
Once again a constant threat with the ball in hand, despite picking up only five wickets at an average of 30. Had he been fully fit in the West Indies second innings in Antigua, England may well have levelled the series, although his batting form remains a worry.

James Anderson - 7 and a half
On roti-flat pitches, Anderson's tally of wickets did not reflect the effort he put in, and his reverse swing nearly won the Trinidad Test for England. Once again he showed he is arguably the best fast-bowling outfielder England have ever had.

Stuart Broad - 8
Used his height to find the ideal line and length to trouble the West Indian top order and dismissed the immovable Shivnarine Chanderpaul on three occasions. England hope his consistency continues throughout the summer.

Steve Harmison - 4
For a bowler who decimated the West Indies on his previous visit to the Caribbean in 2004, Harmison lacked rhythm and consistency. Could the Antigua Test be his final Test appearance for England?

Graeme Swann - 8 and a half (STAR MAN)
Fully justified his inclusion as England's first-choice spinner. Bowled beautifully for his 19 wickets, mixing up his deliveries and managed to turn the ball more than opposite number Sulieman Benn, despite a floating piece of bone around his right elbow.

Monty Panesar - 5 and a half
Infuriatingly inconsistent when England needed him at his best. Was rightly dropped after Sabina Park, but bowled with more menace on his return in Trinidad and showed encouraging signs of variation and some improvement in his fielding. Will need to up his game when Australia tour this summer.

Tim Ambrose - 6
Did everything asked of him when he stepped in for Matt Prior in Barbados. A spritely 76 with the bat while his keeping was tidy behind the stumps ensured the selectors' decision to revert to Prior in Trinidad was not an easy one.

Ryan Sidebottom - 4
With just one wicket to show from 59 overs, this tour was a big disappointment for the Notts left-armer. Looked ordinary because the ball refused to swing for him and his lack of pace was inviting for the West Indian batsmen.

Amjad Khan - 5
Took the wicket of Ramnaresh Sarwan on his Test debut in Trinidad, but sprayed the ball around striving for too much pace while bowling a number of no-balls. Showed signs of reverse swing, but needs to concentrate on accuracy.

If you'd asked me just two months ago which team would win this summer's eagerly awaited Ashes series, I would have said England, indifferent performances in recent series and the upheaval caused by the Kevin Pietersen-Peter Moores rift notwithstanding.

At that point in time, Australia had just suffered their first home series defeat for 16 years, going down 2-1 to South Africa, with the Proteas to making 414-4, the second highest successful run chase in Test history, to win the first Test in Perth.

When Marcus North made a debut century to help them win the opening match of the return series in Johannesburg, I took the view that 'one swallow doesn't make a summer' - and especially an Ashes summer.

The performances of Phillip Hughes, Mitchell Johnson, Peter Siddle and Ben Hilfenhaus in Durban have shown, however, that Australia will have an entire flight of swallows (there's your answer) winging their way towards England.

And judging by the way fast bowlers Johnson worked over Graeme Smith and Jacques Kallis in the first innings, one or two of them are mutated swallows with a taste for blood.

Undoubtedly, 20-year-old Hughes still has plenty to prove, even though he is now the youngest player to score two centuries in the same match, and Australia are still no nearer to finding a spin bowling successor to Shane Warne, the second highest wicket-taker in Test history.

But watching the TV pictures from Durban, one could only admire the speed and remorseless accuracy of Siddle, Hilfenhaus and Johnson, the first two having only eight Test caps between them, plus the latter's naked 90mph hostility, which resulted in Smith suffering a broken finger and Kallis's jawline being split open when he was struck by a superbly directed bouncer.

If all that isn't enough to cause worry beads to appear on the collective brow of the Barmy Army, remember too that Stuart Clark, England's nemesis in the 2006-07 Ashes, and Brett Lee are recuperating from injury and will be desperate to reclaim their places from the new breed this summer.

Will England be able to fight fire with fire? That will depend on whether Andrew Flintoff's body stands up to the demands of a five-match series and whether whoever becomes the team's new head coach can somehow galvanise Steve Harmison.

One thing is for certain - and it's a lesson Amjad Khan might want to take on board after his England debut in Trinidad - Johnson, Siddle and Hilfenhaus don't waste energy spraying the ball around, a fact acknowledged by South Africa skipper Smith.

"Australia kept us under pressure for long periods. We have got to be honest, take it on the chin and bounce back as soon as possible," he admitted - though Kallis will doubtless wish to avoid 'taking it on the chin' again from Johnson in the near future.

The challenge for Australia's tearaway trio is to maintain that predatory instinct when both mind and body are weary and the playing surface is unresponsive - like those served up by West Indies for the series against England.

But Ponting was not worrying about that when he declared: "We have not given South Africa an inch and I'm as happy as I have ever been in my career."

Whatever the result in the final Test in Cape Town, the gauntlet has now been well and truly thrown down, put in a box and sent by international courier to Lord's.

It is now up to England to meet the challenge.

Including both sexes in the competition is an interesting move by the game's world governing body and one which, if it succeeds, should certainly raise the profile of the women's game.

But with crowds used to seeing six-hitting specialists like Chris Gayle, Andrew Symonds, Kevin Pietersen, Yuvraj Singh and Jacob Oram send balls into orbit, just what will female cricketers bring to the Twenty20 party?

To answer that question, I asked one of the best players in the women's game, England captain Charlotte Edwards.

The last six months could hardly have gone any better for England. They retained the women's Ashes in Australia, won a one-day series in New Zealand and have proved too strong for both West Indies and South Africa on home soil.

But it will an even bigger year for them in 2009 when they return to Australia to try and win the Women's World Cup and then seek another glittering prize in the Twenty20.

The latter will run alongside the men's competition, and it offers the England players an opportunity to appear in front of packed houses at Trent Bridge or The Oval and Lord's, if the team makes it through to the semi-finals and final.

A blustery day at Northampton with only a couple of hundred people in the ground does not provide an ideal atmosphere in which to take a look at women's Twenty20 cricket.

But one spectator, who was doing so for the first time as England played South Africa in the first of three games in two days at the County Ground, was pleased he had taken the trouble to do so.

"It's on a par with the [England] under-19s which I watched here the other day. They don't have the same power, so batting is more about placement," he said.

The placement - and timing - of Edwards was perfect as she set a positive tempo for England's innings with 45 off 34 balls, including nine boundaries. The sweep shot and cover drive were particularly productive, the latter involving superb movement of the feet to make room for the stroke.

Edwards, although still only 28, has honed her technique in 112 one-day internationals and 17 Test matches. So how does Twenty20 cricket affect her approach to batting?

"I don't think I've had to adapt my technique - I think it's just about your mindset. You've just got to go out there and be really, really positive, and play the shots you're good at more often than you would do normally. I've been quite successful so far at Twenty20 by doing that," she said.

"They say that in Twenty20 there's more pressure on the bowler, but I think there's more pressure on the batter because you're expected to score runs and get off strike which is not that easy sometimes when the bowlers are bowling well.

"I think you've got to have a clear idea where your fours are and where your singles are, but most of all you've got to get the ball out towards the boundaries and then you've got the option of runnings twos. In the women's game, the team that runs the most twos is often the winner."

England's 138-6 looked a decent score - indeed, it was one run more than the total made by Northants on my previous visit to the ground for a Twenty20 Cup match against Somerset last summer - and there was one six to enjoy as all-rounder Jenny Gunn cleared the rope at long-on.

"We didn't hit as many boundaries outside the powerplays as we'd have liked, but that's something we can work on" was Edwards's verdict on the batting performance.

South Africa aren't at the same level as England, Australia, New Zealand and India, and never looked likely to threaten the target after losing two wickets in the first three overs of their reply.

England are a team in the true sense of the word, united in their determination to achieve a common goal, but there was absolutely no doubt about who was calling the shots as Edwards cajoled and encouraged her young charges.

Even in the final over when the game was already long since over as a contest, England's fielders were still diving and scampering around in the outfield to try and keep the South African score down - and the result was a comfortable 54-run win.

It is that work ethic, established by the captain, which will stand England in good stead next year, and should also get the crowds who go to watch behind them.

"I like the added pressure of them all looking to me and hopefully I can show them the right way. I'm hard on them, but I'm also really fair with them and I think they respect me because of that.

"I'm the first one to give them a pat on the back but I'm also the first one to give them a kick up the bum when they need it. They've reacted really well to me so far, and hopefully that will continue," said Edwards.

"These girls have got a massive opportunity in the next year to play at some fantastic venues. It's exciting for us, but how the girls are playing at the moment is even more exciting. I've got a huge amount of confidence in every one of them."

My proudest moment was leading the team to victory in the end of year Pupils v Masters game, having put 10 fielders within five yards of the bat as their number 11 took strike (he swiped, missed and was bowled) and I once took seven wickets in a house match by yelling appeals Merv Hughes would have been proud of into the face of a teacher who didn't understand the lbw rule.

Outside of school, I played for Geddington CC at village cricket level for several years am proud to boast that I was the most dilligent boring batsman in our league, having once occupied the crease for the entire 48 overs of an innings and only reached 50 in the last one.

I have worked for the BBC for almost 20 years and was proud to be cricket editor of this website from 2000 to 2007.

The match between Northants and Somerset enabled me to kill two birds with one stone, so to speak, as I was able to finally meet up with Justin Langer, the former Australia Test opener who has also been a regular contributor to this website for the past seven years.

The signs weren't promising, however, with thick grey clouds overhead as I arrived at the ground to hear Weather with You by Crowded House and Bryan Ferry's A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall being played by the wag (no, not one of the wives and girlfriends of the Northants players - at least I assume it wasn't) in charge of the PA system.

My team also used to play 20 overs a side matches in midweek, but I only ever took part in one of them. It didn't prove to be my finest hour as I ran myself out off the first ball!

When I mentioned all this to Langer, he could only smile in disbelief - or perhaps it was just pity for my dismal lack of talent.

Northants were expecting a sell-out crowd as their side still had a chance of qualifying for the quarter-finals and thankfully the weather didn't intervene - I even saw a couple of people with ice creams - but unfortunately, their team didn't do the occasion justice with a curiously muted performance.

Lance Klusener smacked the second ball of the innings for four and I thought I might be in for a repeat of the big-hitting exploits I remembered from the 1999 World Cup.

Sadly, he only managed 20 before being bowled by Peter Trego, one of three Somerset seam bowlers who clearly don't look to the England team for inspiration as they didn't send down a single wide between them.

What Klusener may have thought of Always Look on the Bright Side of Life blasting out around the ground as he walked back to the dressing room, I'll leave you to imagine for yourselves.

So where were the thrills and spills which I'd been led to believe were the norm in Twenty20 cricket?

In truth, there weren't many during the Northants innings apart from a couple of sixes each from David Sales and Johannes van der Wath and a brilliant throw from John Francis which ran out Riki Wessels.

A target of 138 didn't look daunting for Somerset, but my pre-match wish of 'Hope you make some runs' proved more a curse than a blessing for Langer as he gave a return catch to Steven Crook after managing only four - cue Don't Look Back in Anger by Oasis.

Once Matthew Wood and Cameron White had established a productive second wicket partnership, however, it quickly became obvious which team was going to win the game - and certain members of the crowd took it upon themselves to try and provide some additional entertainment.

Despite the size of the crowd, stewards were few and far between, allowing one bloke the chance to make not one, but two grand entrances onto the field of play.

His first foray saw him retrieve a beach ball which he held aloft as if he'd just discovered the lost treasure of the Incas (perhaps not a very likely eventuality in Northampton, but it was the first thing of value which came into my head) and he later tip-tapped all the way out to the pitch with a white cane and all the way back again without being pursued by any figure of authority.

Crowd control is something of a hot topic at the moment as a result of bad behaviour at a number of games, and afterwards Langer was certainly unhappy with some of the verbal abuse directed at his players.

But the number of children who spilled onto the outfield with bats and balls after White had ended the contest with two sixes in three balls, both of which cleared the perimeter wall beyond the short mid-wicket boundary, was certainly good to see - and it is that younger generation the Twenty20 Cup was set up to attract.

All we need now is for the 'big kids' to stay at home.

"I heard about Gary Sobers from West Indian psychologist Rudi Webster and how he used to watch the bowlers in the nets, where the release was, where the seam was going. I do that - and also work on balance and depth perception, even the basics of moving forward and back. I could talk for two hours on it."

I doubt his sessions with England's batsmen ahead of the first Test against West Indies on 17 May will include a two-hour lecture, but they know he will certainly have done his homework and will be well advised to listen to every word he says.

Brian Lara's decision to retire from international cricket needs, however, to be put into some sort of historical context. Is he the greatest West Indies batsman ever to play the game? Or, are the words 'West Indies' superfluous and is he simply 'the greatest'?

Let's look at the bald facts first. The top 10 batsmen of all time in terms of runs scored in Test cricket are BC Lara, AR Border, SR Waugh, SR Tendulkar, SM Gavaskar, RT Ponting, R Dravid, G Gooch, Javed Miandad and Inzamam-ul-Haq.

1 Don Bradman

OK, I'm not old enough to have seen Bradman play, but a Test average of 99.94 speaks for itself. People who played against The Don are unshakeable in their belief that he is the finest batsman to strap on a pair of pads, but I wonder what he'd have made of Marshall/Holding/Garner/Croft, Warne or Murali - shame we'll never know.

2 Viv Richards

Yes, Lara has scored more Test runs, but I have never seen a batsman dominate a bowling attack like Sir Viv. He walked to the crease with a lordly demeanour and when in the mood could almost make bowlers get down on their knees and beg for mercy. I'll never forget the summer of 1976 when he rammed Tony Greig's promise to make West Indies 'grovel' back down his throat - but that was only the start of things to come.

3 Ricky Ponting

Ponting has his detractors, who accuse him of arrogance, and when not at his best some technical flaws are evident, such as a tendency to fall away to the off-side when playing the ball to leg. But in the last few years, he has shown himself to be a master against any attack and in any conditions. Unlike Lara and Tendulkar and others, taking on the captaincy has merely inspired him to new heights with the bat.

4 Brian Lara

Announcing his retirement, Lara said he wanted to be remembered as a player who "provided entertainment for the fans" - well, he needn't have any worries on that score. Apart from the batting records he broke along the way, perhaps his greatest achievement was maintaining such a high standard at a time when his team was in decline.

5 Sachin Tendulkar

The demands of Test cricket are such that many highly talented players fall by the wayside. The fact that Tendulkar was thrown in at the deep end at the age of 16 and did not sink marks him out as truly exceptional. Ask Indian cricket fans who the greatest batsman of all time is and you can expect to hear millions speak with one voice.

6 Len Hutton

My dad told me that Sir Len was a great batsman and who am I to argue? Younger cricket fans may be aware of his name, but are they also aware that many of his finest innings were played after he injured his left arm so badly in the gym that surgery left it two inches shorter than his right. Captaining England to victory in the 1954-55 Ashes series was perhaps his crowning achievement.

7 Gary Sobers

Sobers scored more than 8,000 Test runs at an average of 57 - but just imagine how much better that record might have been if he'd played as a specialist batsman and hadn't also been a key member of the bowling attack. A mixture of power and elegance, he was only 20 when he made 365 in a Test against Pakistan and later became the first man to hit six sixes in an over in the professional game.

8 Allan Border

If I had to choose a player to bat for my life it would be a toss-up between Border or fellow Aussie Steve Waugh. The gritty left-hander emerged onto the Test scene while Australia's stars of the time were playing for Kerry Packer and later, as captain, he established the ruthless aproach which eventually led to them becoming the game's dominant force.

9 Sunil Gavaskar

Size in cricket terms clearly isn't important as the diminutive Gavaskar proved himself to be one of the heaviest scoring batsmen of his era. Renowned for his bravery in facing the West Indies pacemen in the Caribbean, he hit 34 Test centuries in all - the one I remember most is a superlative 221 against England at The Oval in 1979.

10 Barry Richards

I could have picked any number of marvellous batsmen to complete the list - Jack Hobbs, Walter Hammond, Javed Miandad, Waugh, Geoff Boycott etc etc. But instead, I've chosen a player who only made four Test appearances because of South Africa's sporting exile during the apartheid era. In those four games against Australia, however, Richards scored 508 runs at an average of 72. If you never saw him bat, then you missed a treat.

Music lovers might argue it was Whispering Grass by Don Estelle and Windsor Davies reaching number one in the UK music charts. For cricket fans, however, it was undoubtedly the start of the first World Cup.

Since then, the tournament has been graced by all the greats of the modern era, Viv Richards, Kapil Dev, Allan Border, Imran Khan, Steve Waugh, Sachin Tendulkar and Ricky Ponting to name just a few.

Alongside them, however, are players who disappeared into cricketing obscurity after a brief appearance on the world stage.

Here, in no particular order, are a few of the World Cup's 'invisible men'. If you know where they are now, or better still, if you're one of them, please get in touch.

1999 New Zealand seam bowler Carl Bulfin played the last of his four one-day internationals against Scotland in Edinburgh, when he bowled six overs for figures of 0-31. Cricinfo tells me he later "reneged" an on agreement to play county cricket for Notts.

1996 Do you recall Zimbabwe batsman Sean Davies? Me neither. Like Bulfin, he played four one-dayers for his country, the last of them against West Indies in Hyderabad. In that game, he took 35 balls to make nine before being run out.

1992 The tournament ended in triumph for Pakistan, but seam bowler Wasim Haider was a peripheral figure. He took the wicket of India's Ajay Jadeja but that was his only success in three matches and he didn't play in the final. Talking of India, I don't remember Subroto Banerjee either.

1987 I came across seam bowler Andrew Zesers whilst conducting research for our World Cup A-Z. He only played twice for Australia and his main achievement was to have New Zealand's John Wright caught and bowled for 61 in a group game in Chandigarh. Was it a straightforward catch or a brilliant one? You tell me.

1983 Pakistan reached the semi-finals before losing to West Indies and Shahid Mahboob played five of his 10 one-dayers during the tournament. He even contributed 77 to a match-winning partnership with Imran Khan against Sri Lanka but it's all a blank to me.

1979 Australia weren't a major threat as Australia, unlike eventual winners West Indies, chose to leave players involved in Kerry Packer's World Series at home. In a second string Australian team, Jeff Moss (one cap) and Graeme Porter (two caps) were two of the lesser lights. Warren Stott made his only appearance for New Zealand during the tournament which seems a bit harsh as he took 3-48 against Sri Lanka.

I wonder who won't be making headlines in the Caribbean!

NOTE: For those of you who don't know who Windsor Davies and Don Estelle are - see below:

But that in no way compares to the absolute thrill I experienced when I shook the right hands of Sir Isaac Vivian Alexander Richards and Mr Cuthbert Gordon Greenidge.

The year of 1976 is memorable for many people as the year punk rock came to the fore.

But for me it was the year when I passed my O-levels - OK, not all of them, I failed physics - and saw Richards score the last 91 runs of his epic 291 against England at The Oval.

It wasn't, however, their numerical feats which made both batsmen heroes of my younger self, it was the manner in which the runs were scored.

As a teenager, I spent hours trying to work out how Richards could unerringly put perfectly respectable deliveries pitched on middle and off or off stump away through mid-wicket for four and how to add the savagery of Greenidge's square cut to my own array of strokes.

Unfortunately for team-mates who once endured my batting through our entire 48-over allocation in a league game and only reaching 50 in the final over, I succeeded in doing neither.

Anyway, back to the present day.

The chance to meet Richards and Greenidge arose when I was invited to a reception at the offices of the BBC Caribbean Service in central London.

Before the reception, they, along with another former West Indies great, Wes Hall, took part in a studio interview with Caribbean Service reporter Orin Gordon.

With a few minutes of studio time still available when the interview was over, I had the chance to pop in and ask a few questions of my own.

It was then that it hit me.

All I could think was, I'm sitting in a chair about three inches away from SIR VIV RICHARDS! And GORDON GREENIDGE is looking at me from the other side of the table!

Richards was relaxed, informal in his shiny open necked shirt and corduroy trousers, and always ready with a light-hearted quip. Greenidge, wearing a smart blue suit and tie, was all business and more serious in his replies.

Both looked fit enough even now, in their mid 50s, to take on the current crop of fast bowlers in world cricket and still give them some serious punishment.

Backing down from a challenge never entered their heads on a cricket field and thinking about what would have happened if he'd faced the likes of Glenn McGrath, Shane Warne and Brett Lee, a glint of inner steel momentarily appeared in Sir Viv's eye.

Now that's a contest I would love to be able to see.

Listen to the BBC Caribbean Service's interview with Viv Richards, Gordon Greenidge and Wes Hall.