CRICKET:England are considering including Marcus Trescothick in their one-day plans again to boost their flagging fortunes.
Trescothick, 31, has not played for his country for 11 months and quit the Ashes tour last winter due to a recurrence of a stress-related illness first suffered in India in early 2006.
Trescothick and the England selectors have remained cautious over a return but to retain any chance of featuring in the Twenty20 World Championship in South Africa in September Trescothick must be named in the provisional 30-man squad this Wednesday.
International Cricket Council regulations allow countries to select an expanded pool of players which needs to be trimmed in half by August 11th.
England signalled their intent on recalling Trescothick - comfortably the country's most prolific batsman in limited-overs history with a dozen hundreds - when they included him in a 25-man performance squad at the start of the summer.
Following the 2-1 NatWest Series defeat to West Indies, coach Peter Moores said, "Watch this space. Marcus is a very good one-day player and when we announce that 30, if he's in it, you will know the time is right for him to come back in.
"Marcus is very much in our performance squad and very much in the loop of everything. We speak to him all the time; he is only at the other end of the phone and that is not just applied to me but other members of the support team."
As highlighted at the World Cup, England lack early firepower with the bat in Trescothick's absence.
Against West Indies, who came from 1-0 down to seal a first trophy overseas since the 2004 ICC Champions Trophy by virtue of a crushing 93-run win at Trent Bridge on Saturday, Paul Collingwood's side also missed penetration with the ball, and Andrew Flintoff in particular.
Yet Moores insists the new regime does not want to use transition or absences as an excuse.
"The key for me is we want to win," he said. "I don't want to hide behind the fact we are going to rebuild and going to have to wait.
"Because we want to win games of one-day cricket straight away - we want to challenge our players to do that.
"I also know through experience that you don't always turn things around that quickly.
"But one thing I will promise everybody is that we are going to work extremely hard in our preparation to move those things forward and gain the right level of skill to get up that ladder and beat sides above us."
England's one-day rating slipped to 102 as a consequence of their latest limited-overs losses, just a point ahead of the eight-placed West Indians, who can improve their standing in matches against Netherlands, Ireland and Scotland in Dublin this week.
Although England's focus now turns to Test mode once again, with the three-match series against India, there are seven one-dayers against the same opposition before the head off to South Africa for the fortnight-long 20-over tournament.
