England move swiftly on to one-day affairs

West Indies 238-8 South Africa 242-8 S Africa win by two wickets

England and India arrived in town yesterday. Four days after the end of a thrilling summer, they must do battle again in the ICC Champions Trophy.

Their weary presence was a reminder that international cricket simply goes on and on. The finish of one campaign merely signals the start of another. So that Nasser Hussain was able to say of this competition, the second most significant after the World Cup, with a $300,000 (£193,000) first prize: "It's just a tournament, a very quick tournament. We can't afford to lose two games on the bounce."

The England captain managed to avoid adding: "If it's a Friday it must be Colombo," But he was sufficiently alert and aware to say: "One thing we must do is give huge respect to the young lads here who are putting on an England shirt for the first time. For them, this is a huge tournament and we won't be doing them a service if we turn up tired, moaning and groaning all the time."

Duncan Fletcher, the coach, would not be drawn on the amount of cricket teams are expected to play. But England have met India 10 times in one-day internationals already this year. The 11th match between them in eight days' time, could well decide who progresses to the semi-final here, and the 12th – next spring in South Africa – will have a large bearing on the World Cup.

"Everyone is in the same boat," Fletcher said. "We're not allowed to say much about it. It's up to the International Cricket Council. We've got to turn up wherever cricket is organised for us."

Hussain said that several players now had a chance to press their case for inclusion in the World Cup squad after the injuries which forced five withdrawals from this squad. Nobody would have said that a fortnight ago about the two all-rounders who find themselves with England: Surrey's Rikki Clarke or Ian Blackwell of Somerset.

"We would have hoped to have 14 of our World Cup places pretty settled by now," Fletcher said. "It takes 30 matches to gain the required experience in one-day cricket and those 30 have got to come pretty quickly now." That actually sounded for a moment like a plea for more one-day cricket.

So exhausted were the Indians after flying here in the early hours, from Bombay where they stopped for two days after leaving London, that they had to postpone their press conference for nearly two hours. Their captain, Sourav Ganguly, was phlegmatic about it. "That's what international one-day cricket is all about. We play a lot of cricket, but our careers span only 10 or 12 years. Our families understand that, which I think is the key in this."

Anybody wanting a reason for staging this tournament would have had to look no further than its second match yesterday. South Africa and West Indies came up with a corker, just what was required after the straightforward win for the hosts in the opening tie the night before, which delighted Sri Lankans and bored neutrals.

West Indies made 238 which seemed insufficient for most of the South Africans' reply. But the West Indies hauled themselves back into it. Three runs were needed from the last ball. To general horror and pity, Merv Dillon bowled a wide from which the batsmen took a run to level the scores. There was thus an extra ball. Alan Dawson smeared it for four. It set the tournament alight.