Fletcher still searching for a short answer

NatWest Series: England's one-day game is evolving but, with the World Cup looming large, not quickly enough

It is becoming a universal truth that limited-overs cricket changes from one-day to the next. If this is part of its charm, it is also solid evidence that the short form of the international game, still a mere 31 years old, continues to evolve.

The NatWest Series, which concludes with the final at Lord's next Saturday, has been wonderfully entertaining while again demonstrating how far one-dayers have come (and how far they may still have to go). There is still a tendency on the part of self- professed purists to be sniffy about the 50-over stuff, which completely ignores the stimulating effect it has had on Test cricket.

Far from being simple, hit and giggle nonsense, one-dayers demand intensity, purposefulness, flexibility and constant innovation. It is hardly its fault that some (though certainly not all) games are over as contests barely before they have started.

It is certainly England's fault that they are still making up ground they lost by their own risible attitude over too many years. They are learning fast but, like Paul Collingwood's bowling for instance, it may not be fast enough.

Players and coaches can never rest easy. No sooner have they thought of some sneaky ploy to give them an edge than it has been countered, as may be witnessed at Old Trafford today in the seventh match. All the limited-overs games are now being played with one aim in mind: the 2003 World Cup in South Africa. The side who come up with the new ideas then – as well as the best cricketers – will win.

England's coach, Duncan Fletcher, said yesterday that he was keen to persuade Nasser Hussain to stay as captain beyond that competition. "He has a great cricketing brain and has done an excellent job," said Fletcher. "We have guys waiting to replace him like [Marcus] Trescothick and [Michael] Vaughan but I believe it's still too early for them. People don't appreciate what captaincy is all about, how much stress the captain is under."

Fletcher added, much more contentiously, that Hussain remained the best No 3 in the present squad. That estimation – with Hussain's low strike rate of 66 runs per 100 balls – does not perhaps equate with the coach's assessment of the continual changes in the one-day game.

"It's becoming slightly more of a batter's game but not too much," he said. "I do believe bowlers are learning to bowl different types of ball. It wasn't that long ago that nobody could really bowl one out of the back of the hand but you do see that now. Things like this are starting to change."

There remains the balancing act between picking those who are simply the best players and finding the so-called one-day specialist. This will probably be an eternal search which will make the quest for the Holy Grail seem as mundane as looking for your misplaced car keys.

Nobody now would doubt, for instance, that Andrew Flintoff is a splendid cricketer who should be in all England's sides as their key all-rounder.

Equally, nobody would suggest that Paul Collingwood is good enough for the Test team. It is also still perplexing to see Collingwood and Ronnie Irani in the same one-day side as apparent experts. That does not somehow square with picking the best cricketers.

But England are not alone in treading this tricky path so uncertainly. It partly explains why batting has been in the ascendancy this series and lately in general in other tournaments. The bowling has been moderate. "I think the bowlers have got to develop more variations," said Fletcher. "More slower balls for example." And, he might have added, more varieties of slower ball, but only as long as their purveyors are landing them in the right spot.

As if to show that it is essential to keep pace in all aspects, Fletcher also mentioned a part of the game in which England have indubitably improved. Their fielding is at last beginning to bear the fruits of the hard work which Fletcher and his cohorts have put in. The fielding drills his players have to go through regularly in practice are well organised and have an objective. They do not seek to replicate the real thing, but by repetition they help fielders to cope with the real thing.

England practised long and hard in Manchester yesterday. So far, in the series they have found India harder work than Sri Lanka. India's batting depth has been as expected, if anything more daunting than it was in the series between the sides on the sub-continent last winter. Still, the feeling persists that their batsmen will always have to make bundles of runs to compensate for the bundles of runs their bowlers will concede.

This applies with knobs on to Sri Lanka. Before this summer they looked a goodish bet for the World Cup. The elements and the schedule have conspired against them but if they have not exactly had one foot on the plane home this month they have certainly given the impression that they have a hotline to the airport.

For all England's progress they still may have missed a trick or two. They picked Alex Tudor in the squad but he has yet to play a single one-day international and much of their other seam bowling has not been up to it.

They had better pray that the 39-year-old Alec Stewart stays fit because they probably do not have a contingency plan and they desperately need their best pair of opening bowlers – who have a combined age of 64 – Darren Gough, who is playing, and Andrew Caddick, who is not, to regain full fitness.

Fletcher said that they are already close to finalising their World Cup squad and they hoped to take those players to the ICC Knockout Tournament (a kind of mini-World Cup in Sri Lanka in September). By then, in any case, it will be too late for anybody to make a case.

Fletcher said 12-month central contracts were essential. England had already fallen behind the rest of the world once by regarding one-dayers as unimportant. "That could happen again." England have already qualified for the NatWest Series final. They may even win it. They are evolving. But Fletcher and his men cannot dispel the impression that for them one-day remains some day.