Another World Cup campaign has ended in desolation and despair for the English cricket team.

World Cups have been a nightmare for England since the 1992 edition in Australia. Before that England had made the final three times between 1979 and 1992.
It is indeed strange that the team which invented the one-day form of cricket cannot play it any more.
The writings were on the wall much before the World Cup campaign started. The defeat in the Champions Trophy and the Ashes whitewash had damaged English cricket a lot.
There was a glimmer of hope when England came out of nowhere to win the Commonwealth Bank series in Australia after being hammered in the earlier stages.
That flattered to deceive. England’s performance throughout the World Cup was flat and uninspiring.
The knives are now out on skipper Michael Vaughan and coach Duncan Fletcher. The heroes of England’s Ashes triumph in 2005 have now become Enemy No 1 of English cricket.
With the first Test against the West Indies at home less than a month away, English cricket needs to pick itself up very quickly.
Admittedly, the West Indians are not much of an opposition these days. This will provide England the right platform to regroup and gain some vital confidence back.
But the question of one-day cricket will be uppermost on the minds of the English cricket authorities.
England seem to do everything wrong in this form of the game.
In retrospect, England’s batting never really took off though the bowlers did a fairly reasonable job.
Power play portions were never dealt with properly and often the England batsmen crawled during this crucial period.
Unfortunately with Ed Joyce and Vaughan in poor form, too many balls were wasted and in the bargain the run rate remained pedestrian.
There can be no denying that the skills of Marcus Trescothick were missed. The Somerset batsman always gave England much needed momentum at the top of the order.
Hopefully, Trescothick will sort out his problems quickly and make a comeback. He has already shown good pre-season form with an excellent double century for his county.
There was too much dependence on Kevin Pieterson to shape the England innings. He ended up as one of the successes of the World Cup.
Pieterson has often been blamed for throwing his wicket away after reaching a half-century. In this tournament, however, he showed better sense and registered a century.
Flintoff’s pathetic form with the bat did not help England’s cause. He rarely looked the player who demolished the Australians in the Ashes. And his late night binge also saw him lose the vice-captaincy.
Paul Collingwood did a fair job as usual with both bat and ball and Paul Nixon began to show why he is a key batsman in one-day cricket.
Ian Bell had a good tournament but he could rarely force the pace at the start of the innings. This proved detrimental because the openers too were playing at Test match pace.
The batsmen often put England into tight situations but the bowlers regularly bailed them out to make the match more competitive.
England’s pacemen James Anderson, Flintoff and Sajid Mahmood had some good spells and Monty Panesar bowled well.
So where do England go from here? Vaughan has said he will not quit one-day cricket while Fletcher has quit as coach.
However, England must look at the bigger picture to improve. Their approach and tactics in one-day cricket seems to be as ancient as the game itself.
They must learn from the Australian and Sub-Continent teams on how to adapt to the changing needs of one-day cricket. One-day cricket is all about innovation and this aspect needs to be introduced at the county level first to improve the game overall.
In the past, England were a strong team because they had experience in the format. By 1992, other teams began to get smarter.
The pinch hitting of Mark Greatbatch of New Zealand and a spinner, Dipak Patel, opening the bowling for the same team were inspirational. Then the Sri Lankan pair of Sanath Jayasuriya and Romesh Kaluwitharana bludgeoned their team to a World Cup title in 1996.
These are only a few examples of adaptation by teams who looked beyond the tried and trusted formula. England can also do something different.
England must also shun the ‘bits and pieces players’ and seek quality ones who can add that extra dimension to the needs of one-day cricket.
Young players should be blooded now so that in four years time they are ready for the World Cup.
Get Trescothick back. Give him help even if it takes a while longer. England need a few more Trescothicks to break out of the rut.

Picking up the pieces
Babu Kalyanpur