Light goes out on England's finale at The Oval

THE most senior figure in English cricket has called for a change in rules on bad light after the Ashes ended with boos ringing around The Oval.

England takes series 3-0

THE most senior figure in English cricket has called for a change in rules on bad light after England's Ashes triumph ended with boos ringing around The Oval.

Aleem Dar and Kumar Dharmas-ena, the umpires, called off play with England needing 21 runs from the last four overs to complete an unprecedented 4-0 Investec series win against Australia.

Giles Clarke, the ECB chairman, described the conclusion to proceedings as "totally unsatisfactory". He said: "The rules are clearly unacceptable and I expect David Richardson (the ICC chief executive) to change it at the next meeting."

Alastair Cook refused to criticise the umpires, putting disappointment behind him to reflect on "the things that dreams are made of" after accepting the urn as the England captain.

Having supervised the 3-0 success, Andy Flower, the team director, declined to knock back reports that he intends to step down after the return series in Australia this winter.

Flower remains in control of the timing of his own departure and his future may be tied to that of Hugh Morris, the managing director of England Cricket, whose position would be a natural step for Flower if he wants to spend more time at home.

Asked about his intentions after the 2013-14 campaign, Flower, who accepted the job four years ago, said: "We have got to enjoy the moment and not look too far ahead. We have to really enjoy this evening."

Ashley Giles, the one-day coach, is Flower's natural successor, but none of the capacity crowd of more than 23,000 would have cared two hoots about development behind the scenes during one of the most exciting days of the five-match series.

Bold batting by Australia left England chasing 227 from a minimum of 44 overs, and they finished on 5206 when Dar and Kharmasena intervened. By comparison, the reading on the light meter was well above the reading of 5.9 recorded on the second day, when play finished ten minutes earlier than the 7.36pm conclusion yesterday.

Michael Clarke, the Australia captain, found some of his answers drowned out by boos during the presentation ceremony. He said: "What do we do? You do your best to try to set up the game, but unfortunately the home fans ... I am sure the Australia fans would be exactly the same."

Clarke was angry that the umpires had not taken a reading earlier, but managed to avoid explicitly criticising Dar after the official appeared to push him out of the way as Clarke tried to see the meter reading for himself.

"I remember Aleem Dar touching me and I asked him not to, because if I touched him I would be suspended for three games," Clarke said. "I am not getting into numbers, but I was batting in Manchester when we went off and there was a big difference, it was certainly worse here."

Cook said that he could understand the frustration of The Oval crowd, some of whom would have been there when England won the Ashes at the venue in 2005 and 2009.

"I can see both sides," Cook said. "Unfortunately, sometimes the officials have to take the emotion out of things and be consistent to both sides. Of course it is disappointing having got ourselves in to that position and I think we would have scored the rest of the runs. If the boot was on the other foot I would have probably asked the same question (as Clarke)."

Cook has now played in three-Ashes winning sides, but he admitted that captaincy made the latest triumph extra special. "Guys before the series told me it would be mentally tough. Until you go through it you have no idea how intensive it is," he said.

"If you think back to the start of the series we were asked how we would handle the pressure of being favourites, the pressure of that expectation. I think we have answered those questions. To win 3-0 is a big margin of victory."

Neither of the captains denied that the series had been hard fought. Clarke said: "Both teams are always competitive but the first thing we will do is go into the changing rooms and have a beer with the England guys."

Cook said: "The final day has been a little bit stressful, but good for Test cricket and Australia should be credited a little bit for setting it up."

The Times