England
Cricket's failings focuses Lancaster's mind
Tom Hamilton
March 10, 2015
Stuart Lancaster is in the midst of World Cup planning © Getty Images
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If Stuart Lancaster ever needed a reminder of just how big a deal September's World Cup is going to be, the failings of England's cricket and football teams on their biggest stage have sent a timely reminder.

The England cricket team were unceremoniously dumped out of the Cricket World Cup by Bangladesh on Monday and their exit was greeted with a great deal of schadenfreude by some with the Australian Daily Telegraph's back page headline reading 'Cheerio Chaps: Poms are Bangers and Mashed'.

The cricket team's failings dovetailed with the England football team's inability to get through their group in the 2014 World Cup as they picked up one point from nine.

As Lancaster continues to fine tune their preparations for the World Cup on home soil - Henry Slade is the latest to emerge as a contender to make the squad - the failings of the England cricket team have emphasised to the England coach the need to get their preparation perfect.

"Any national coach can empathise with another coach [Peter Moores] from their country who has gone through a difficult World Cup campaign but it does reinforce to me the need for us to be as best prepared as we can be for our big challenge in six months' time," Lancaster said.

"With the tournament being in our own country, the pressure and expectation on the team are going to be huge. We have massive games ahead of us on Saturday and the following weekend [against France], but you can't help thinking ahead to what September is going to look and feel like."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd
Tom Hamilton is the Associate Editor of ESPNscrum.

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