England's worn-out cricketers returned home from a disastrous tour of India to be greeted by scathing comments from the media which said the team's success stories were so few that it could be written on a postcard.
An indignant media said England needed to make progress fast if they were serious of avoiding a flop show in the World Cup and also hit out at Indian adminstrators for "pure greed" by making the teams play seven matches in 19 days.
Under the headline "World Cup plan no clearer after flogging cash cow to death", The Guardian said England's cricketers flew into Heathrow last night feeling relieved to be home but - if they still had the energy to think about it - confused about their position in the one-day international pecking order.
The newspaper observed that "the success stories could be written on the postcard that almost certainly was not sent home from Guwahati or Jamshedpur.
"Kevin Pietersen glistened throughout, top-scoring in four of his five matches and finishing the tour with a set of one-day career stats - an average of 65, a strike rate of 98 - to match his genius.
"Yet if any moment summed up the haplessness of England's tour, it came on Saturday when the self-inflicted crack of willow on left knee during Pietersen's innings of 64 spoiled what might have been a masterpiece."
The Times noted that England coach Duncan Fletcher may know the geography of India a little better, but he is none the wiser about his World cup squad after a bloated one-day series between the two sides.
"Fringe players ruled themselves out rather than in and England's biggest climbers were the likes of Rikki Clarke, who was not selected, The Times said.
"Ian Bell and Sajid Mahmood did enough to warrant more opportunities but Matthew Prior, Vikram Solanki, Owais Shah, Gareth Batty and Matthew Hoggard will all be fortunate to retain places against Sri Lanka in the summer, even if England suffer another bout of injuries to senior players. Kabir Ali is borderline."
According to The Guardian, "underpinning the whole tour was the issue of burnout, crystalized in the hulking figures of Andrew Flintoff. Even with specially laid-on charter flights, seven games in 19 days represented pure greed on behalf of Indian administrators, who show no sign of easing up, despite the pleas of the ICC president Ehsan Mani.
"In an ideal world Flintoff would have played the whole series. But once England had gone 4-0 down at Cochin he was too precious to waste on three meaningless one-dayers.
"As long as the Indian players' union delays joining the Federation of International Cricketers' Association, the cash cow will continue to be milked at will and the stars flogged into submission", the paper said.
It observed that the bottom line was that five defeats, one victory and a mini-riot in Guwahati have moved England roughly one step forward and one step back in their quest for a World cup formula.
"If they are serious about avoiding a fourth successive flop in one-day cricket's biggest event, progress is needed - and fast".
