World Cup exit could mean the end for Strauss in one-day game

Both coach Andy Flower and Strauss insist England need a period of reflection after their World Cup quarter-final elimination by 10 wickets at the hands of Sri Lanka on Saturday.

But they already have a date pencilled in their diary for mid-May, at which matters arising from England’s eventful and exhausting winter will include Strauss’s continued tenure as captain of the 50-over team.

The 34-year-old opener’s Test leadership is, of course, unquestioned – especially after England’s historic Ashes victory in Australia.

But as planning inevitably begins again, after this World Cup watershed, for England’s next attempt to win the competition for the first time in 2015 they will be aware Strauss is unlikely to still be at the helm at the age of 38.

Flower has already, albeit briefly in the thick of England’s sub-continental campaign, discussed the matter with Strauss after a press report – subsequently denied by the captain – claimed he would resign at the end of the current tournament.

“I’ve chatted with Andrew Strauss about this, but I don’t think making snap judgments at the end of five months of solid cricket is the right time to be doing it,” Flower said. “I think if we give ourselves a couple of weeks to clear our heads, we will see things clearer. Certainly we will be discussing that in the future.”

They will reconvene in six weeks or so, at a debrief which will be chaired by England and Wales Cricket Board managing director Hugh Morris.

Strauss’s situation will be one of several topics to be aired, including England’s tortuous World Cup campaign and ultimately undignified early exit.

“We’ve had a really good couple of years in Test and one-day cricket so it’s really disappointing that we could not have done better here,” Flower added. “I think we’ve been very inconsistent as a one-day side for the past couple of months.

“After the Ashes during the series in Australia we played some reasonable cricket, but we were soundly beaten out there.

“I think that knocked our confidence a little and then out here we’ve been inconsistent.

“We haven’t delivered the skills that are necessary in these sort of conditions.”

But at the end of a long winter that began in Australia back in October, Flower refused to pin his side’s World Cup failure on fatigue.

“To be honest I think that (fatigue) is part of it, but we didn’t play well enough and that is the crux of the matter,” he added. “There are various reasons for that. We are going to review the winter, in May we are meeting. There has been a lot of good stuff that the England cricket team has done over the winter.

“There are some lessons we can learn from some of the mistakes that we have made.”

Former England captain Michael Vaughan believes that the defeat in Colombo may have been Strauss’s last game in charge.

“He is an outstanding Test captain and his one-day batting has improved over the last year or so,” he said. “But he’ll also understand that when he gets home and the dust settles he needs to decide what is best for the England team and the England one-day set-up.”

Report: Page 13.