Pace pair paper over the cracks

World Cup: Anderson and Harmison the only bright spots amidst much desperate tinkering as World Cup looms

After watching from the non-striker's end as Alan Mullally had his stumps spreadeagled by the Indian fast bowler Javagal Srinath at the 1999 World Cup, I left Edgbaston recognising the fact I had played my last game of one-day cricket for England. His dismissal knocked our inept side out of the competition and it was accepted, by most of the forward-thinking England players, that now was the time to start preparing for the 2003 World Cup in South Africa.

Fifty-nine matches later and the selectors have reached decision time. Now, belatedly, the experimenting must stop. In the next week they have to agree on the final 15 for February's tournament and give them to the International Cricket Council.

Consecutive victories over Sri Lanka in the current VB Series have at last put smiles back on the faces of England's cricketers, but are they signs that we are moving in the right direction? The answer is no, and those two wins should not paper over the cracks, which the sun of Australia is only making wider.

With a bowling attack that is sure to contain James Anderson and Stephen Harmison, two bowlers the bookmakers would not have even given you odds on participating six months ago, Nasser Hussain's one-day squad will give the appearance that they have been thrown together by chance rather than united by planning.

To a large extent they have been. The England coach, Duncan Fletcher, stated that he wanted all his World Cup squad to have played a minimum of 30 matches before the tournament. However, during the 42 months since that fateful day in May 1999, England have used the equivalent of a player a month. Of those 42, only seven have reached the number Fletcher required. One reason is awful luck with injuries, but it is also because 15 did not grab their opportunity and because there has been too much tinkering with the team – three players will have fewer than 10 matches behind them.

Fletcher and Hussain have not been helped by two of their most influential players becoming unavailable. Darren Gough's knee injury is a huge blow, because as a one-day bowler he is irreplaceable. The loss of Graham Thorpe is also hard to take because the left-hander is one of the best "finishers" – batsmen who can time a run-chase to perfection – there is.

Although England will be waiting on the fitness of Andrew Flintoff and Ashley Giles in January, the squad for the remaining one-day matches against Australia and Sri Lanka when the VB Series resumes in the New Year must be as near as possible to that of the World Cup. It is very late, but in the last four – six or seven if they were to reach the VB final – competitive matches, England must perfect their World Cup game-plan.

This series has served a purpose. Not only have the two games against Australia shown England what level of performance they need to aspire to, but the conditions are similarto those in South Africa. On good pitches with pace and bounce there is a need for specialist batsmen and bowlers. On slow, low surfaces bits-and-pieces cricketers can be effective. Look at how Ronnie Irani has fared. He is a competitive cricketer but such qualities will only take you so far, and his limitations have been found out down under. Batting at three he has scored just five runs in his four innings, and with the ball in his hand he is yet to take a wicket.

A fit-again Michael Vaughan should bring an end to the Irani experiment and Hussain, who fought so hard to prove the point he could bat at three, must move back to this position. He may not be the ideal "first-drop", but England have invested a lot of time in him batting there.

The huge playing surfaces of Australian cricket grounds have also shown that England need to improve their fielding dramatically. On these grounds you need athletes not lumberers, and Hussain has too many of the latter. The likes of Irani, Ian Blackwell, Andrew Caddick and Stephen Harmison may not be exposed quite as cruelly on the smaller grounds of South Africa, but they will cost England runs they can ill afford. This is an area which can be improved in five weeks, and Fletcher needs to work them harder than they have ever worked before.

The performances of Anderson and Harmison, though, have been very encouraging, because neither had played a one-day international before this winter. For a 20-year-old Anderson bowls with remarkable maturity. The game-plan of the Lancashire fast bowler appears simple and his judgement of what to do when the pressure is on has already impressed the England captain. He has a nice, high action and, handled in the right way, he should have a successful career.

Harmison has also proved to have a lot more to him than most believed. He arrived in Australia as a wayward quick who suffered from homesickness. After a nightmare start at Lilac Hill – where he bowled 16 wides – he has shown the inner strength behind his nervous exterior. This was confirmed in the Perth Test, where he lost his run-up completely. Rather than fall to pieces he battled on and deserved more than the solitary wicket he took. He bowled with increasing control against Sri Lanka, and if he can combine this with his pace and bounce he will be a handful for any batsman. It would be asking an awful lot to expect two such inexperienced bowlers to carry England's World Cup hopes, though.

Despite attempts to build up England's chances before the tournament, Hussain's side are a long shot for the World Cup. Of the 59 matches they have played in the last three-and-a-half years they have won only 27. When you consider that 13 of these victories were against Zimbabwe and one was against Bangladesh it tells you just how well they have fared against the big boys.

Fraser's World Cup squad: N Hussain (Essex, capt), M E Trescothick (Somerset), N V Knight (Warwickshire), M P Vaughan (Yorkshire), P D Collingwood (Durham), A J Stewart (Surrey), A Flintoff (Lancashire), I D Blackwell (Somerset), C White (Yorkshire), A R Caddick (Somerset), J M Anderson (Lancashire), S J Harmison (Durham), R C Irani (Essex), M J Hoggard (Yorkshire), A F Giles (Warwickshire).