England Cricket / Ralph Ellis / 27 May 2009 / Leave a comment

Andrew Strauss may be delighted with England's successes over the West Indies but Ralph Ellis believes that the early-summer tour amounted to little more than a pre-season fixture..

Pre-season tours are never to be relied on. I've known sides that have strolled through their warm-up games against apparently top opposition recording massive wins and then lost half a dozen games when the real thing starts. And there have been times when dismal results against local pub teams have been followed by Championship wins.

So forgive me if I don't go overboard about England's success against the West Indies in both a Test series and the One Day Internationals. Andrew Strauss is understandably full of enthusiasm for what's yet to come this summer after leading his team to a record breaking victory at Edgbaston, though.

He's putting his feet up for a while because he's not in the squad for the Twenty20 World Cup but reckons the groundwork for the Ashes has been done. And he even thinks Paul Collingwood could lead a home victory in the contest to find the best in the world at the quickfire form of the game.

"I'm really happy with things," he's told this morning's papers. "I know Colly is excited about taking over the reins. We have a really good chance in the Twenty20 and it's going to be an exciting month. We got pretty much everything we wanted out of our games against West Indies. I like the way we were clinical and performed so consistently - there aren't many negatives to come out."

Now the only snag with that analysis is that the Windies were manifestly not bothered from the moment they set foot on British soil. Huddled up against the cold weather they never bowled or batted with the slightest bit of heart or conviction. Of course there's the old saying about "you can only beat what's in front of you", but really it was all just a gentle warm-up. A pre-season if you like.

And just to add to the confusion if you're thinking of backing England to win the World Cup at the current price of [10.5], yesterday's most outstanding batsman, Matt Prior, won't even be in the Twenty20 team. He cracked 87 off 86 balls at Edgbaston, but must now hand over the wicket keeping gloves to James Foster of Essex. (Although there is an argument that Foster is a better wicket keeper anyway).

England can't be taken seriously when the World Cup starts on June 5 unless they first win their qualifying group in which Pakistan are [1.7] favourites. It will only be then that you can give any credence to the optimism which Strauss has left behind.

Five things you might not know about James Foster

1. Born in April 1980 in Leytonstone, his middle name is Savin.

2. He went to Forest School in Walthamstow and then Durham University - the same education as his former Essex and England captain Nasser Hussain.

3. He played tennis for Great Britain's Under 14 team and hockey for Essex Under 21s.

4. He was still a student when he was first called up for England's A squad, and a year later had got into the Test team - only to break his arm in the nets to let Alec Stewart back in the team.

5. In his first major tour with England - to Zimbabwe - he got in a furious row with a batsman who refused to walk. He must have been forgiven - the batsman was current England coach Andy Flower.