IF this summer's Ashes win was the cricketing equivalent of scaling Everest, then victory over Pakistan this winter would be akin to climbing K2. Marginally less daunting, but fraught with just as many dangers.

Less than six-and-a-half weeks have passed since Kevin Pietersen hammered the Australian attack to all sides of The Oval but, when England take the field for their opening tour match in Rawalpindi on Monday, the time for self-congratulation will be at an end.

Past glories will count for little once Danish Kaneria starts turning his arm in the dustbowls of Faisalabad and Lahore.

If the England hierarchy had been able to choose their next staging post following this summer's success, an eight-week trip to the Asian sub-continent would have been well down their list.

Even at the best of times, a tour of Pakistan is a slog and, despite the euphoria that followed England's every move this summer, the current times are not as good as they seem.

For starters, the devastation caused by the recent earthquake that rocked northern Pakistan will shadow the tourists' every move.

A tour that already threatened to be unnervingly insular given Pakistan's well-publicised security problems will now be claustrophobic in the extreme.

Even for a squad as well-bonded as England's, two months of constant company will offer a completely different challenge to anything faced in the summer.

Ever the statesman Andrew Flintoff talked of "bringing pleasure to suffering people" before landing in Pakistan yesterday.

While it is fanciful to think a game of cricket can repair the damage inflicted, the recent disaster will surely nurture a renewed sense of both unity and purpose in the Pakistan squad.

Their players will be desperate to make amends for England's last tour of the country, when Nasser Hussain's side followed two draws with a dramatic third Test win under the fading lights of Karachi in 2000.

That series win provided the first signs of the obduracy and resilience that have come to characterise Michael Vaughan's new-look England. Both of those attributes will be needed in spades if the tourists are to achieve a similar outcome again.

They also need to find a replacement for the injured Simon Jones. While England's pace attack complimented each other perfectly this summer, it was no co-incidence that the Australian openers posted their only century partnership once Jones' ankle injury sidelined him at The Oval.

With Jones in the side, England would have stuck to the blueprint that proved so fruitful against Australia. Steve Harmison and Matthew Hoggard bang it in early, then rely on Jones' reverse swing and Ashley Giles' persistence to reap rewards. With the Glamorgan seamer out, England need a 'Plan B'.

In the final Ashes Test they went for Paul Collingwood, but it is difficult to see the Durham man getting too much change out of pitches both dry and bare.

James Anderson and Liam Plunkett offer quicker alternatives but the bravest option would be for England to go with two spinners, as Pakistan are sure to do. At 36 years of age, Shaun Udal is hardly one for the future so, on potential alone, promising all-rounder Alex Loudon deserves his chance.

After mastering the doosra - an off-spinner's delivery that leaves a right-handed batsman - the 25-year-old should at least ask questions of a Pakistani batting order that failed to fire during this summer's tour of the West Indies.

England's own batting line-up looks far more settled and, while mastering spin remains an issue, a set of good batting tracks should ensure high scoring.

It could also be the tour that cements England's claim to be world number one.

Clearly, anything Wayne Rooney can do, David Beckham can do better. Or, to be more precise, Beckham can do and get away with it.

When the England captain was sent off in this month's 1-0 win over Austria, his team-mates were quick to suggest that he was being targeted because of his reputation. Bagging Beckham was a feather in the cap of any self-respecting referee.

On Tuesday, we saw the flip side of Beckham's fame. Rightly dismissed for sarcastically clapping the referee a la Rooney, the Real Madrid midfielder was subsequently cleared.

The Spanish FA's decision was worrying and wrong. Wrong because Beckham's petulance deserved to be punished, and worrying because his status seems to have placed him above the law.

BUlgaria's Tihomir Titschko was crowned European Chessboxing Champion last week after an epic final in Germany.

Chessboxing, in which competitors interchange four-minute rounds of chess with two-minute rounds of boxing in search of a knock-out or a check-mate, is supposedly the 'number one test of mental and physical strength'.

Given that last weekend's Grandstand was dominated by darts and motor-cycling, expect to see it on a television near you soon.