Fletcher eyes pace weapon as England's hope

England's new coach, Duncan Fletcher, is not about to strike a Nelsonian pose and utter the phrase ``England expects every man to do his duty . . . '' as the tourists pack the last items of their kit and later Monday prepare to fly out of cold London to sunny South Africa.

About the only frown Fletcher is wearing at the moment is about whether Alex Tudor is fit and able to bowl a ball in competition. The young Surrey all-rounder should arrive Tuesday hopeful he will not have a breakdown for if he does Chris Silverwood, the young Yorkshire fast bowler will get to do a spot of sun bathing as Tudor heads for home to sort out the groin injury.

Fletcher is not the shy sort. He can be quite a tough nut with firm ideas and when he was called in by the England (and Wales) Cricket Board (ECB) to help select the side for the tour it was clearly from a position of strength as a revamped squad of experience and youth has based an attack with the idea of subduing the South African batsmen.

The good news for the tourists was the fitness thumbs up given to Darren Gough whose absence made him all the fonder to the skipper, Nasser Hussain, when he missed the series against New Zealand and the result was a 2-1 defeat. It could have been 3-1 but for the weather.

Either way, though, it demoted England to the bottom rung of the Test countries ladder and South Africa is seen as the new beginning. Gough and Tudor are seen as part of that ``new beginning'' with Andy Caddick and the man who can cause a lot of problems for South African batsmen, the left-arm swing bowler and seamer Alan Mullally.

Without wanting to commit himself, Fletcher, has admitted that taking over the England coaching post at the lowest point in their 122-year Test history, could make it an interesting first tour for more than just himself.

The 30-year-old Mullally, from Leicestershire, has been the backbone of his county's bowling attack for several summers; now he could, with Gough and a fit Tudor, form the spinal column of England's pace attack for the Test series against South Africa.

Down in Bloemfontein coach Graham Ford has been putting the South African Test batsmen, along with a couple of fringe players through their ``improvement paces'' as it were at Springbok Park.

With the Zimbabwe side in trouble and thin on bowling now that Heath Streak is out because of an injury problem, Ford had a good look at Jacques Kallis, Adam Bacher, Daryll Cullinan, Boeta Dippenaar, Mark Boucher, the skipper Hansie Cronje, as well as Dale Benkenstein and Nic Pothas. Knowing Ford it was probably a tough workout and with the weather right for such an exercise the South African batsmen were being geared for their first major challenge of the summer's campaign of 10 Tests between now and mid-March.

Streak's injury could not have come at a worse time for the Zimbabweans while contractual problems involving star all-rounder Neil Johnson and top-order batsmen Murray Goodwin may deflect some of the attention away from their game against South Africa in Bloemfontein's inaugural Test.

Alistair Campbell (capt), Grant Flower, Andy Flower, Murray Goodwin, Neil Johnson, Gavin Rennie, Guy Whittal, Andrew Whittal, Henry Olonga, Bryan Strang, Mpumelo Mbangwa, Trevor Gripper, David Mutendera.