Are England Really Interested in One Day Cricket?

Well after the fifth one day international between England and India at Cuttack yesterday,which England lost yet again,one thing that is going on in my mind is that are team England really interested in playing quality cricket-be it test or one day international?For, in none of the one day matches in India,the England team have ever risen to the occasion and put up a tough fight.Since the England team have landed in India, all the one day matches that have been played so far in this series,none of them have been close encounters.Was this the team that boasts of being in the finals of a world cup on three occasions?Was this the nation that put forward the idea of the game of cricket in the 18th century in front of the world?

In the fifth one day international, I was really satisfied with the way Kevin Pietersen and co. batted in the first innings to put up a tough stand compared to the previous matches.But, it was evident that the England batsmen didn't do anything in particular even with the bat for the pitch behaved as the batsmen wanted it to.The bowlers showed absolutely no signs in restricting the home team.With a win out of question, the English bowlers were found giving too many short pitched deliveries which helped four out of six of the Indian batsman to notch up a half century and get only one batsman out for a score less than 50.I wonder as to why should a team look forward to playing against such nations who are hare only to have a tour rather than play cricket?Why does one need players of the caliber of Sachin and Yuvraj to tackle this England team.

I just cannot recall as when England last won a one day series outside England. England has been playing cricket for centuries altogether.Though there are teams like Bangladesh,West Indies and Zimbabwe who are far below par when compared to England, it is worth mentioning that these teams are not gifted with talented players of the caliber of Andrew Flintoff, Kevin Pietersen,Steve Harmison and much others. With the English football team making waves all over, whats wrong with their cricket?It just looks like England are not at all interested in playing one day cricket and T20,although their test team is a pretty decent.For the number of wickets England had in hand,the total should have well crossed 300.But,no.

One more interesting aspect of the England squad is that in the current cricket squad that is under tour, three of the English players namely Ravi Bopara,Samit Patel,Owais Shah are of the sub continental origin.Are England short of players in their country for they hire players from the sub continent?