Domestic strife at root of one-day woes

As defeats go, England’s humbling by West Indies in the Twenty20 match in Trinidad on Sunday was just one more black mark on a one-day landscape that, for nearly two decades, has looked dark indeed, writes Mike Atherton in the Times.

Two things continue to hold back England’s one-day cricket, one that can be sorted out with enough will and one that cannot. Dodgy weather is a hindrance, producing pitches that favour honest trundlers and batsmen wary of hitting through the line of the ball, both a rare breed in winning international teams. But New Zealand have a similar problem and when Strauss did service for Northern Districts two winters ago he proclaimed the standard of New Zealand’s domestic one-day cricket to be far superior to England’s.

David Lloyd, in his article on the Sky Sports website, writes that England's defeat in the Test series was a result of West Indies being the better side. He feels the quality of the team could only improve if there was a change in mindset on the field, and in the domestic structure off it.