FLOP AGAIN AND YOU'RE DUMPED; CRICKET: CHAMPIONS TROPHY: Strauss throws down gauntlet to England.

Byline: ROBIN PORTER

ANDREW STRAUSS last night issued a veiled warning that England's one-day cricketers are playing for their futures at the Champions Trophy in South Africa.

Although the captain continues to back the current 15-man squad, shorn of its two best players, Andrew Flintoff and Kevin Pietersen, through injuries, further convincing defeats following the series loss to Australia would make certain individuals uncomfortable.

England originally considered naming their winter tour parties for duty in South Africa yesterday but have now delayed selection until their exit from this tournament.

Strauss said: "Performances in the Australia series and Champions Trophy will obviously be on the selectors' minds.

"We're not sure entirely which way we are going to go on that at the moment but guys have got three more opportunities to show what they can do. Hopefully more than three."

Excited An Australian captain would naturally have spoken of wanting to take stock after five matches - a stretch that would incorporate semi-final and final in this tourney - but England's travails in limited overs cricket are so deep-rooted it is hard ever to look beyond the group stages.

For this mini-World Cup, Strauss' team take on hosts South Africa, the in-form Sri Lankans and New Zealand, a team they have defeated just four times in 17 completed one-day internationals.

He added: "One-day cricket has been an ongoing concern for us for a number of years now and we are talking about decades rather than a few years.

"But I am increasingly excited about making big strides in one-day cricket and in order to do that we need to have a real look at what we have been doing in practice and in the middle.

"It is a good project to be involved in and moving forward as a group. It is going to take a bit of time but in the meantime I maintain we're capable of beating anyone. We just haven't had the consistency over a number of years and need to improve that.

"I don't imagine for one minute there are going to be wholesale changes like picking nine or 10 guys who haven't played for England before. I don't think that is helpful.

"Generally these guys have been the guys who have performed most consistently in county cricket.

There will be a few knocking on the door and rightly so but there is always that temptation to think a magic cure is somewhere lurking in the counties.

"The reality is that the cure lies within the group of players and how we approach our cricket, how we practise and all that sort of stuff."

The remedy is obvious to most observers of the 6-1 thrashing by the Australians - score more runs.

The bowling unit was all too often left with nothing to bowl at and fast bowler James Anderson served up the harsh truth for the batsmen when he said: "I don't want this to sound horrible but they can't do much worse.

"They know exactly what they have to do and the whole thing about one-day cricket is that your top six get the bulk of the runs.

"It was a really disappointing series and we don't want a repeat.

"We know we've a lot more talent in the side than we showed and we want to show people we can beat some of the top teams in the world."

England's recent displays have been littered with lame chipped catches and catastrophic run-outs, which in turn have resulted in groans in the stands, commentary box and even the dressing room.

So what does one of the bowling unit think when he sees another tame dismissal? Anderson added: "To be honest, it doesn't really matter what I feel, it is the guy out in the middle who has done it and the batters know if they get to 20 or 30 they should be going on to get at least 80 if not a hundred.

"We have been missing a big score and in some of the games if it wasn't for Strauss we wouldn't have got near some of our totals.

"It is frustrating but we know they are not doing it on purpose.

"The fact we have got away from England and can kind of start afresh a little bit, under a new set of circumstances, with new teams to play against, will just help us turn things around."

CAPTION(S):

MISSING: Andrew Flintoff, top, and Kevin Pietersen won't play because of injury STRAIGHT BAT: Andrew Strauss didn't mince his words in warning another failure can't be tolerated