The Hindu : Sport : England has a tough job on hand

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Oct 01, 2007
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Sport

England has a tough job on hand

Ted Corbett

DAMBULLA: England without Freddie Flintoff; Sri Lanka minus Murali. With those two giants missing it sounds as if the five-match series which begins on Monday may be duller than the local ditchwater but, with security tight, three pitches prepared but at least one certain to last the 100 overs and a sell-out crowd in prospect there was every sign of tense competition.

Sri Lanka had a better Twenty20 and was runner-up in the unsatisfactory World Cup and England has rarely excelled at the one-day stuff. But England lasted more strongly than India in its recent clash and Paul Collingwood has brought out its finest spirit in his brief reign as captain.

Besides, the two teams have been neck and neck since their limited overs history began in 1982 when the other Fletcher Keith of Essex, a great county captain, a fine Test batsman but out of his depth in the murky waters inhabited by international coaches led England to victory. The more renowned Fletcher Duncan was marked down because he never produced a winning World Cup team but he laid a good foundation which his successor Peter Moores ought to develop.

Sick players

Moores was trying hard on Saturday with a management meeting that lasted all morning and a long evening training session but he still has too many worries about his sick players, including Collingwood, to name a team. Sri Lanka will probably play its Twenty20 side but it was also casually unsure.

The teams are tied at 19-19 after their quarter of a century of battle but playing the World Cup runner-up at home as you try to rebuild is hardly what a team would choose to do and the suspicion is that when England goes home for a 35-day rest before the Test series it will be as loser.

There are worries for both players and management. The thought of an onslaught from Sanath Jayasuriya or Mahela Jayawardene will keep young men like Stuart Broad, the six-sixes bowler and Chris Tremlett, still not punching his weight for all he is 6ft 9in, awake at night, the mix of all-rounders like Collingwood, Dimitri Mascarenhas and Ravi Bopara sounds like cannon-fodder in the making and Monty Panesar, the only spinner of international experience, has still to prove he is a great one-day bowler.

Sans Flintoff

Without Flintoff, whose whole career is in danger after three operations on his left ankle, England is unlikely to control the run-rate or rush out the danger men; Sri Lanka has repeatedly shown it can win without Muralitharan although he makes life much easier whenever he begins his games of twist and turn.

The last time England played a one-day match in Dambulla it lost by 10 wickets on a low, slow pitch that suited no-one and rain washed out the rest of the series.