Cricket: WHAT A BALLS-UP; One day disaster.. Flintoff and Co must hit back in Faridabad tomorrow England's Test team is great but our one-day cricket is so bad it's embarrassing.

Byline: Ian Botham CRICKET'S No.1, ONLY IN YOUR DAILY MIRROR

LET'S not pull any punches - England's defeat in Delhi was one of the biggest balls-ups I've ever seen.

Losing normally just makes me feel disappointed, but this made me angry.

Our Test cricket is great to watch because we are a forceful, resilient side who deserve to be ranked No.2 in the world - but our one-day game is embarrassing.

I felt sorry for Freddie Flintoff: after all his heroics as acting captain in the Test series, he was left scratching his head wondering how the hell England lost a game they should have won blindfolded after bowling India out for 203.

Flintoff was honest enough to admit the batsmen need to take a long, hard look at themselves.

Their shot selection was appalling and their obsession with the sweep shot is mind-blowing, given the number of times it's got them into trouble this winter.

There is simply no way on earth you should lose a one-day international when you are 117-3 after 20 overs chasing 204 to win.

It beggars belief that England screwed it up so badly that they lost by 39 runs when the equation was only 87 runs off 30 overs with seven wickets in hand.

None of the lessons we should have absorbed from the one-day series in Pakistan appear to have been learned.

And until we address two fundamental areas urgently, England are NOT going to be a dominant force in one-day cricket and we are NOT going to win the World Cup next year. First of all, let's start picking our best players. If Matthew Hoggard is good enough to be ranked in the top four Test bowlers in the world, why isn't he in the one-day side?

What is the point of England calling Hoggy into the squad as cover for the injured Steve Harmison, forcing him to cancel a three-week holiday he had booked with his wife, if they are not going to play him?

If I were Hoggy's missus, I would be rather miffed if I missed out on three weeks of white sands and blue skies just so he could carry a drinks tray around India.

Australia, who have won the last two World Cups and know what they are doing, wouldn't dream of leaving Glenn McGrath or Brett Lee out of their one-day side. And like I said after the Pakistan tour - not that anybody took any notice - why do we need two wicketkeeper/batsmen, Geraint Jones and Matt Prior, in the same side?

Asking Prior to open the innings when you have someone like Vikram Solanki, who has scored one-day hundreds for England, twiddling his thumbs on the sidelines makes no sense. We need to stop kidding ourselves and start copying the best sides in the world, because at present we are either trying to set a new trend in mediocrity or maybe we are content to persevere with a formula that isn't good enough.

And the other major problem is our old friend the sweep. Five batsmen in a row got themselves out playing it - how long is it going to be before the penny drops?

England swept themselves into oblivion against Pakistan in Lahore, and here they are doing it again.

Certain players in the England set up, notably Kevin Pietersen and Marcus Trescothick, play it well, but it's not the be-all and end-all when there are acres of space down the ground where you can hit the ball in the air safely.

I don't understand the attraction of hitting across the line, especially on an uneven pitch against Harbhajan Singh, who extracts more bounce than most spinners, when the risks outweigh the possible gains.

Apologies if I sound like a scratched record, but surely England would be better served taking the aerial route over mid-off or mid-on, and then just milking easy singles when the fielders are pushed back to cut off the boundaries.

I don't blame Pietersen, who basically sliced a full toss he would have put in the grandstand 99 times out of 100, but some of the other dismissals just don't bear thinking about.

With less than 12 months to go before the World Cup, it's time for the penny to drop. I can't believe what I saw in Delhi, and I trust it will be a long time before I see another cock-up like it.

'Our team's obsession with the sweep shot is mind-blowing..we just have to stop playing it'

CAPTION(S):

GUILTY: Matt Prior was one of five batsmen out sweeping _- but he shouldn't have opened