Team Fletcher lost in fog of truth and denial

In the second year that Sydney Barnes was top of the English bowling averages, Karl Jaspers published the first edition of his seminal work, General Psychopathology. With respect to Barnes, who in the opinion of many sound judges was the best bowler who ever lived in that summer of 1913 or any time, it is probable that Jaspers has more pertinence to the present state of the England team.

Of course, a single glance at Barnes could tell most of the present lot much about how a cricket ball should be delivered but there are other themes afoot. Jaspers was the German philosopher who first denoted the three principles of self-delusion: certainty, incorrigibility and impossibility of falsity of content. In the England team competing in the 2007 World Cup, Jaspers would have found a perfect footnote as an example of his proposition.

It is not that England have been playing indifferent and haphazard cricket for the fourth World Cup in succession. The tournament now almost demands that this is what they should do. It is that they still publicly protest that they are a team of talent and substance for whom one day it will all suddenly click into place when all the evidence is to the contrary. Jaspers might have had it down as a classic case of delusion.

In the circumstances, it is perhaps difficult to know what else England could have done, except that they are not admitting their shortcomings. They are clinging on to that brief, heady period in Australia in February when suddenly over the course of 10 days they defeated Australia, the best side in the world by the length of the Burke and Wills expedition, three times and New Zealand once. It seems it was a passing straw, because England are now drowning again.

The batting is in disarray because it is incapable of providing a decent start. Against Bangladesh last week, England again lost an early wicket and a second before the score was 50 for the fifth time in the tournament. The bowlers are woefully patchy and, by and large, are not up to the job, the fielders lack zip when compared to any other side left in the competition. Crucially, Andrew Flintoff, the player who remains their talisman, is out of form and probably being betrayed by a body on which too many demands have been put. He has bowled well, his batting is all over the place and Flintoff, as the fulcrum of the team, affects everything.

All this was true before the astonishing victory in the Australian triangular series and it is so now. Yet Duncan Fletcher, England's coach, was able to say again yesterday: "We have been so close. If we could just put in consistent performances, this could be a very good side. At the moment we are a dangerous side because other teams fear us after what we did in Australia after four performances like that. If we put in four performances like that here, we'll win the World Cup, it's as simple as that."

Jaspers would have adduced this to demonstrate his thesis. The reason that England are not a very good side is that they are incapable of putting in consistent performances. Yet, it is also true that England are not out of this World Cup.

Victory over South Africa in Bridgetown on Tuesday and anything could happen. That would in all likelihood lead to a semi-final against Australia in St Lucia. Australia are due an off day. And so on.

Although the tournament could desperately do with somebody, anybody, beating Australia, England would be unworthy winners. The one-day philosophy would still need rebuilding and the status of Fletcher would still deserve to be questioned.

Fletcher declined understandably once more yesterday to answer questions on his future in the job. "I don't think it's the time to report on these things. I have got to play South Africa and then West Indies, and those are the important things I want to discuss," he said.

However, it is inescapable. Fletcher's position is a hot subject of discussion partly because of the way he disports himself. Something is eating him and everybody notices it. A casual conversation with an umpire the other day prompted the observation: "What is it with Duncan? Sometimes he is perfectly friendly, says good morning with a smile, and the next day cuts you dead as you go to speak to him."

If matters are affecting him like that, the job cannot be worth doing. Questions also have to be asked about some of the rest of his staff. It has become quite fashionable to traduce Kevin Shine, the bowling coach at the National Academy.

The reputation of the batting coach Matthew Maynard, solely a Fletcher appointment because they were chums from their time as coach and captain at Glamorgan, has hardly been enhanced this winter. Maybe they are timing their run to perfection.

Maybe they realised there was no point in peaking early on. Maybe they will beat South Africa on Tuesday, lose to West Indies on Saturday and still qualify for the semi-finals.

The harsh truth is that England have not graced this overlong tournament at any time and would seem to be deluding themselves. If this somehow proves not to be the case it could be time to eat a few words and in General Psychopathology many of them are indigestible.

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