In a normal summer, an England selection like the one that has been made for the first Test against West Indies might have aroused no more than a "fair enough" verdict. All the major decisions can be justified by reasonable logic. But this isn't a normal summer: an Ashes series looms. And you would have to be suffering from Swine flu to think that this squad is one to beat the Aussies.

The big battle is almost upon them and yet it seems that Andy Flower has assumed the role of Captain Mainwaring, unable to detect the enemy through his thick spectacles, while Geoff Miller runs around, like Lance Corporal Jones, with voice quavering shouting: "Don't Panic! ... Don't Panic!" But panicked they possibly are.

It is not, of course, Flower's fault that he has been appointed team director so close to such a big series. But, in making his first selection on a blank piece of paper (the players in the Caribbean were provided for him before he became stand-in coach) he has fallen into the trap of trying - rather too hard one suspects - to make the big statement every new boss wants to make. Its sub-text is something like: This is a fresh start. Whatever you thought before, think again. And whatever I am, I am not the same as the bloke before.

Peter Moores started with a statement. It was short but turned out lucky. For his first match, he brought in Matt Prior as wicketkeeper - and Prior rewarded him with a century. In his second, he recalled Ryan Sidebottom, who was also an immediate hit, although Sidebottom only got his go because Matthew Hoggard was injured. They turned out to be about the last good ideas Moores ever had.

History records Duncan Fletcher as a good judge of character yet his first Test XI - admittedly chosen from a squad into which he too had little input - contained three debutants, Gavin Hamilton, Chris Adams and Michael Vaughan. Only Vaughan was to prove a success. Before him, David Lloyd also relied on new faces to brighten the start of his reign. They were Ronnie Irani, Alan Mullally and Min Patel. So, Brave New World-wise, the portents are not good.

We will have to wait to see whether Flower has got it right about the ability of his Essex protege Ravi Bopara to score runs at number three and whether Tim Bresnan and Graham Onions are good enough to take Test wickets, but there is no doubting the message of his first Test squad: central contracts no longer mean anything.

By leaving out Michael Vaughan, Ian Bell and Steve Harmison, Flower has raised the awkward question why, if the three of them are not worthy of places in the England team, the ECB thinks fit to pay them retainers.

Vaughan has not played a meaningful match for England since he was awarded a new contract last autumn - and he may very well never play another. Nor has a central contract ever done much for Bell's game; his Test average has fallen year on year ever since he was first awarded one. As for Harmison, a central contract merely seems to be a device by which he is permitted, between England disasters, to go back to Durham so that everyone can forget how badly he was bowling before he is recalled again. Nice work if you can get it.

Flower has spotted that this may not the best way to produce a team of world-beaters and that playing good cricket and displaying genuine character just might be. Miller's talk about this squad announcement putting an end to "closed shops" was therefore significant. Flower, of course, cannot scrap the central contract system overnight. The existing ones must run until September. But he may well want them redefined after that. It is in his gift to do so.

He may not have picked a good squad but he may have alighted on a good idea. The era of patronage is over. At Lord's next week there will be just two survivors from the Ashes-winning team of 2005. If Australia feel contempt, at least it won't be inspired by familiarity.

Pietersen deserved shot at redemption in World Twenty20

One squad down, one to go. On Friday, Geoff Miller will be trundled out before the cameras again to unveil England's 15-man squad for the World Twenty20. The biggest talking point will be Paul Collingwood's restoration to the captaincy he relinquished last August.