To no great surprise, the Ashes were wrapped up on Sunday. Australia steamrollered England inside 11 days of actual cricket, leaving those with flights booked to see the "climax" of the series at Melbourne and Sydney feeling faintly stupid. So England's Test team skulks off to count the bruises and the stitches, and tries to regroup for the none-too-enticing prospect of avoiding only the second 5-0 whitewash in Ashes history. A series of strength-sapping one-dayers isn't the best way: back in 1920-21, JWHT Douglas's touring team had leisurely state games galore, and matches against teams like "Fifteen of Ballarat" and "Fifteen of Geelong". (Not that it did them any good, mind you. It still ended up 5-0.)

Talk of whitewashes inevitably brings up another old chestnut. Is Steve Waugh's team actually the strongest of them all? All the computer programs in the world, from Silicon Valley to Barossa Valley, aren't going to tell us for sure - which is half the fun, of course.

The usual suspects are the Australian sides of 1921 and 1948 and the West Indians of the early 1980s. All had uncompromising leaders. Warwick Armstrong never gave a sucker an even break, and Don Bradman wasn't inclined to after Bodyline. Clive Lloyd shrugged off criticism of his unrelenting pace attack, pointing to the results instead.

Obviously all these teams have had brilliant batsmen (OK, the jury's out on Darren Lehmann, but Faoud Bacchus got a few games for Lloyd's lot too) and inspiring, incisive bowlers ... the quicker the better. Gregory and McDonald in 1920-21 were just about the first truly fast pairing in Test history, Bradman had Lindwall and Miller, Lloyd had Marshall and mates, Waugh has McGrath and Lee and Gillespie. Waugh also has Warne, the sort of ace Bradman and Lloyd didn't have up their sleeves.

But the greatest sides had something else, too. Reserves to die for. You can gauge the strength of those great teams by the players who couldn't even get near them. Wayne Daniel and Sylvester Clarke hardly played for West Indies, and had to take out their frustration on a succession of quivering county batsmen instead. Franklyn Stephenson, one of the best allrounders of the 1980s, never won a single cap.

The 1921 Aussies were a seasoned bunch - no place yet for stylish youths like Alan Kippax or Vic Richardson, or a couple of blossoming Bills in Ponsford and Woodfull. In England in 1948 the elegant Bill Brown and the combative Colin McCool were fringe players for The Don's all-conquering Aussies, and there was no place at all for people like Bill Alley, Bruce Dooland, Cec Pepper and George Tribe. They would have walked into any other Test side, but they couldn't crack Australia's - all four of them came to England to ply their trade instead, with great success.

In the '80s almost every county had a West Indian fast bowler lurking at the end with the dodgy sightscreen. Some of them - Clarke, Daniel, Ezra Moseley, Hartley Alleyne, Tony Gray and the exotically named Victor Sylvester "Vibert" Greene - played little or no Test cricket for the strongest side around at the time.

And now history is repeating itself. In 2002 almost every county's batting order was held together by an Australian. None of them is an automatic pick for the Test side, although Martin Love might soon be, and Mike Hussey probably should be. But it's no idle boast that Australia's 2nd XI could probably beat everybody else's first team (although the bowling might be a little more of a worry than the batting).

It's a far cry from poor old England. This winter's touring team included four or five players who weren't fit, in the forlorn hope that they might magically get better. In an unexpected twist the ones who were fit then started dropping like flies, and England finished all three Tests with only ten fit (well, fittish) men.

When Andy Flintoff failed to recover the call went out for Craig White, more of a John Stephenson than a Franklyn in the allrounder stakes. Paul Collingwood doesn't inspire too much confidence, and England are surely only a torn muscle away from reverting to Ramps or hoping for Hick. You just have to have reservations about the reserves.

But which side is the greatest? Judging by the back-up strength West Indies 1984 v Australia 2002 would be a pretty good game, although if you played it at Perth the Fremantle Doctor wouldn't be the only medical man on duty. But the 1948 Aussies were invincible, weren't they?

Steven Lynch is editor of Wisden.com.

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