Profiles / Editor / 12 February 2007 /

England coach Duncan Fletcher is refusing to get carried away with England's one-day success but believes his young side are ahead of schedule in their development.

The tourists shocked the cricket world and the Australian public with their 2-0 finals success over the hosts in the Commonwealth Bank series, after looking down and out of the tournament during the group stage.

Four successive victories - three of them against the world champions - has given Andrew Flintoff's men a shot in the arm going into the World Cup in March, after they were written off as no hopers following successive humiliating defeats to New Zealand and the Aussies during the early stages of the triangular tournament.

Fletcher himself has come in for some fierce criticism during the tour Down Under after England's Ashes humiliation and their less-than-convincing start to the one-dayers.

However he can now take some pride for the way his young side bounced back in the 50-over game and collected their first overseas one-day silverware since 1997.

Despite the amazing turnaround in results and performances, the coach believes there is still a lot of work for his charges to do if they are to compete with the big teams on a consistent basis.

"We've got to be very careful, a young side will have ups and downs," he said "Consistency comes in experienced sides who've won from difficult situations.

"There is a huge improvement to make, but if they can make that improvement they'll be very, very competitive."

Despite his cautious approach, Fletcher feels that the current crop of players may well be ahead of where he thought they would be as a one-day unit, and could cause a stir in the Caribbean.

"On this tour I thought we were a year away but a young side can bring that forward to six months," he added.

"This side has brought it forward probably to three months and there's a very good chance they've brought it forward to a couple of weeks before we go to the World Cup."

Matched to small stakes at 23 England are now trading at 11.5 to win the World Cup, with the Aussies drifting to 2.92 from a low of 2.50.

Australia are set to face New Zealand in the Chappell Hadlee Trophy, with the first match scheduled for Friday in Wellington, and can be backed at 1.3 in an emerging market to bounce back from their recent defeat to England.
The Black Caps trade at 3.15 to make it back-to-back defeats for Ricky Ponting's men and a drawn series is on offer at 3.1.

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