LONDON (Reuters)
England's crushing Ashes defeat is expected to herald a clear-out of players, with veterans Michael Atherton and Alec Stewart heading the list. Several newspapers have suggested that stand-in captain Atherton will retire from the international scene at the end of the season after England lost their seventh successive Ashes series against the Australians. The Sunday Telegraph, under the headline "The end of an era", argued that Atherton and Stewart could be followed in the near future by captain Nasser Hussain, who has missed most of the series through injury, and pace bowler Darren Gough. Atherton, it said, had "played in all seven of those Ashes defeats and even a man of his unyielding perseverance can have enough." Wicketkeeper/batsman Stewart, meanwhile, had featured in six out of the seven series and "the selectors will probably decide that the time has come after the Oval test and let him retire." The Mail on Sunday agreed, with its back-page headline that it was "Time to go", arguing pressure would be applied on Atherton, Stewart and Gough to "declare their long-term plans". Number six batsman Ian Ward, who has looked out of his depth in averaging 13.6 in the series, also faces the axe while Mark Ramprakash's dismissal at a key time in the second innings at Trent Bridge has re-ignited concerns about his temperament. Former England off-spinner Vic Marks, writing for the Observer under the headline "Ramprakash heads list of condemned men", said: "His second innings dismissal -- halfway down the pitch to Shane Warne swinging at thin air…was blatantly inappropriate. We have seen such errors of judgement too often in test cricket. They stem from an uneasy mind rather than any obvious technical frailty. It is easier to overcome technical frailties. Ian Ward, now in his fifth test, must surely be discarded as well." All-rounder Craig White, regarded as a crucial link in England's series wins in Pakistan and Sri Lanka at the turn of the year, is also under pressure after failing with both bat and ball. He averages just 7.6 batting at seven, while his one wicket of the series has cost him 189 runs. "His contributions have been so slender in this series that it is surely impossible for him to play at Headingley," Marks wrote. The Sunday Times, meanwhile, called for chairman of selectors David Graveney to stand down, despite his contract running until 2003, while also attacking coach Duncan Fletcher. Fletcher, it said, "has failed to instill in his players any more steel for the truly big occasions than any of his four predecessors, David Lloyd, Ray Illingworth, Keith Fletcher and Micky Stewart." Few of the papers, however, produced names of young players ready to be called up, although Hussain and first-choice batsmen Graham Thorpe and Michael Vaughan are set to return from injury. Fletcher has long bemoaned the lack of new talent ready to play at test level. The Sunday Times preferred to dwell on the scale of England's latest humiliation. "Australia completed the fastest demolition job in modern times when they regained the Ashes on the 11th day of the series," it said. "A historic 5-0 whitewash, a feat neither country has achieved in more than 100 years of competition, remains a probability rather than a possibility."

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