England's World Cup exit

World Cup 2011

Flower cautions on hasty decisions

ESPNcricinfo staff

March 27, 2011

Andy Flower, the England team director, has admitted brief discussions with Andrew Strauss over the captain's future in one-day internationals but wants the dust to settle on their World Cup quarter-final exit before any major decisions are taken. Sri Lanka handed them a 10-wicket thrashing in Colombo to continue England's poor record at the global tournament since 1992.

Rumours about Strauss's future in the 50-over game began while England were still in the World Cup and, although he was quick to quell them, it's likely that consideration will be given to the value of him continuing as the team begin their four-yearly rebuilding cycle.

There is no doubt Strauss still warrants a place on form - he made 334 runs at 47.71 in the World Cup including 158 against India - but he may decide to focus his energies on guiding England to the Test No. 1 ranking.

Andrew Strauss

"I know he would have liked to have finished stronger with the bat personally, having had such a great start to the tournament, but he's been as strong as ever," Flower told Sky Sports. "Whether he focuses on only Test cricket at the moment, I'm not too sure. We've discussed it very briefly.

"But now is the not the time to make too many judgements, too many big decisions. Over the next few weeks, which he will have off, we can talk about that sort of stuff."

The ECB will review the performances over the last six months - which included the major aim of winning in Australia - before the home international season begins against Sri Lanka on May 26. Flower has his own thoughts about lessons that have been learnt and changes that need to be made, but didn't want to elaborate in the immediate aftermath of defeat.

"I don't want to talk too much about those reasons right now," he said. "I think it's best that we travel home, clear our heads and then we can look back on the last few months and review it properly - and probably with a cleaner set of eyes and a clearer mind."

There had been genuine belief that England could challenge for their first World Cup title after an upturn in 50-over form in the last 18 months and their victory at the World Twenty20 in the Caribbean. England's limited-overs play had been characterised by a positive approach but that vanished against Sri Lanka which was one of Flower's biggest regrets.

"I thought [it] was a good example of playing with fear. We were very tentative and we obviously had a very poor start," he said. "We are paying the price for that tentativeness."

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