England look to rebuild their morale

Cricket

England's World Cup hopefuls are getting an early opportunity to rebuild team morale after South Africa won the Test series 1-0 with a 10-wicket victory in the final Test which finished two days.

Virtually a new-look England will take the field in Cape Town today for a 50-over contest against Western Province.

Neil Fairbrother, Dermot Reeve, Neil Smith, Phil DeFreitas and Craig White take over from Jason Gallian, Mark Ilott, John Crawley, Devon Malcolm and Angus Fraser for the one-day series against South Africa which begins in Cape Town on Tuesday.

The spinner Richard Illingworth who missed the Test through injury, is still not expected to be fit today but the batsman Mark Ramprakash and the fast bowler Darren Gough are two other players from the original tour squad who still harbour World Cup hopes.

Atherton's verdict, page 23