Tour essential to improve England's limited-overs experience

England coach Duncan Fletcher would be the first to admit that his charges play too much cricket.

So the decision to add a new tour - to Zimbabwe in September and October for five One-Day Internationals - to his side's already hectic schedule might have caused a few eyebrows to be raised.

It extends England's winter itinerary, which also includes Test and one-day series in both India and New Zealand, to almost six months for players who are included in both parties.

But ever the realist, Fletcher knows that England urgently need to play all the limited-overs cricket they can as they prepare for the 2003 World Cup. The events at Old Trafford when Australia bundled them out for their lowest-ever one-day score of 86 only served to emphasise the work that needs to be done.

Fletcher said: "There's no doubt we play too much cricket which is why we try to look after the Test players especially.

"There is too much cricket and that period (in October) was the first decent break we were going to have.

"When you compare it to southern hemisphere sides like South Africa and Australia they have a three-month break every second year, but England just do not seem to have that.

"We also have to perform well in the next World Cup so we have to go out there and play more one-day international cricket."

Fletcher added: "England have got to really look at why in the past they haven't played enough one-day international cricket.

"With the Zimbabwe tour we can look at some players and also give the batsmen in particular experience of one-day cricket.

"We're the youngest side in international cricket by a long way and we were even before we made the changes in this tournament - we're far behind any other side bar Bangladesh."

Fletcher has pointed out that England's line-up at Old Trafford boasted only 445 caps compared with Australia's 1,214, while Pakistan fielded a side with 1,169 appearances at Lord's last Tuesday - despite being without Saeed Anwar and Wasim Akram.

Now Fletcher is searching for young, athletic cricketers who can gain experience before the next World Cup - players like Ben Hollioake and Owais Shah who, along with Marcus Trescothick, have been the success stories of the series so far for England.

"The young players have an awareness and an ability, but we still have to identify more players," he stressed.

"We're trying to get a side together that's a lot more athletic which is one of the areas identified as a bit of a concern during the series in Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

"We have to identify a certain amount of players now that we believe in and are going to stick with. That's the only way we're going to get out of our losing run.

"We can't suddenly bring guys in, give them a couple of games and then hurl them out because that's going to cause real problems and knock the confidence out of the team and each individual player if he comes in and out in a situation like this."

England's next One-Day International is against Pakistan in the NatWest Series at Headingley on Sunday - weather permitting.