England's cricketers are struggling to avoid a first defeat in seven Tests. But their selectors have already lost, or at least mislaid, the Midas touch with the recruitment of Darren Pattinson capping a bad few weeks.

The four-man panel of Geoff Miller, coach Peter Moores, James Whitaker and Ashley Giles was set up six months ago following a decision to ditch long-time chairman David Graveney. Their first big call, made just before the Wellington Test in mid-March, put a huge amount of credit in the bank.

When England were badly beaten at Hamilton in the first match of the series, on-site selector Whitaker postponed his trip home from New Zealand and, after much deliberation, it was announced that not only Steve Harmison but also Matthew Hoggard had lost their spots.

Replacements Stuart Broad and Jimmy Anderson did well; a victory in Wellington was followed by another at Napier and, since then, the same XI have added a home series win over the Kiwis before dominating the first three days against South Africa at Lord's.

The axing of Hoggard was a brave call, and one which Anderson's bowling has vindicated. But, since then, the selectors have been short on imagination and less than sound in judgement.

Remember the NatWest one-day series against New Zealand? Tim Ambrose would like to forget it after scoring 10 runs in five innings once England decided that he, rather than Matt Prior, was the country's best bet as a limited-overs batsman-keeper.

Far from boosting his confidence, the one-dayers knocked Ambrose back as a batsman, meaning he went into the Test series against South Africa under more pressure - and that was before he was promoted to No6 at Headingley.

Other bits of one-day policy were also questionable, such as failing to persevere with Luke Wright as an opener and giving Dimitri Mascarenhas just one game.

The one-day mess the panel has made extends to the selection of England's provisional squad for September's Champions Trophy. You would have thought that, between them, they could have come up with a case for Essex all-rounder Graham Napier, whose Twenty20 innings of 152, from 58 balls, against Sussex was played more than a week before England named their 30.