Whittle angered by withdrawal

England should have opened their campaign against Egypt in the Four Nations' Tournament but were told on their arrival in Poland yesterday that their opponents had withdrawn, forcing a scathing attack from the England manager, David Whittle.

"This is the second successive tournament where we have turned up and a team has decided to withdraw [Cuba pulled out of the Madrid Tournament]. It is unfair to everyone, including the organisers, that nations decide to do this and is unacceptable," he said.

England play Poland in Gniezno tomorrow in an unofficial game, the Czech Republic on Saturday and Poland on Sunday.

Before leaving for Poland, Whittle said: "We plan to build on the good start we made in Madrid last month. This tournament is another opportunity for us to test the newcomers we introduced in Spain along with the four new caps we have included. We know we have an inexperienced squad but we want to give everyone an opportunity before selecting the team for the Azlan Shah Tournament in Kuala Lumpur at the beginning of August."

Guildford's Danny Hall, the sole survivor from the Sydney Olympic squad, will be joined by three of his club colleagues, the goalkeeper Nick Taylor, Adrian Wilkinson and Roly Ward, expecting to make their first international appearances. Cannock's Scott Cordon is the fourth newcomer.

ENGLAND SQUAD: D Hall, N Taylor, A Wilkinson, R Ward (all Guildford), A Todd, R Todd, B Barnes, Manpreet Kochar (all Reading), J Lewis, A Humphrey, S Cordon (all Cannock), D Matthews, J Evennett (both Canterbury), J Goudie, J Bleby (both Loughborough Students), C Graham (Bournville), D Haydon (Teddington).