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Martin Gough

England's tepid victory overshadowed

Martin GoughSt Lucia - England’s 51-run victory over Canada would not have lived long in the memory were it not for the events that surrounded it.

By mid-afternoon in St Lucia, discussion of Andrew Flintoff’s late-night escapades had become frivolous next to the news of the death of Pakistan coach, and former England batsman, Bob Woolmer.

Before taking the Pakistan job in 2004, Woolmer worked as a high performance coach with the non-Test nations.

He would have been impressed as Canada recorded their highest World Cup score, with key contributions from home-grown batsmen Ashif Mulla and Abdool Samad in a stand of 96 for the fifth wicket.

England will struggle to use the score line as evidence their World Cup campaign is back on course.

They learned little in an uninspiring win and were arguably less impressive than in defeat to New Zealand.

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Martin Gough

England Fred-less

Martin GoughSt Lucia - England’s timing could not have been any worse as Saturday provided two lessons in the perils of taking lesser nations lightly as Bangladesh overturned India and Ireland secured a famous triumph over Pakistan.

Skipper Michael Vaughan made it clear after defeat to New Zealand that he would be taking this game against Canada seriously but it looks like his players failed to follow that lead.

England’s management confirmed on Saturday that several players were fined after staying out late after the game – it may be as simple as that, with very little booze involved.

But, when the main debate around the laptops in the media centre is the spelling of the word “pedalo”, trouble can’t be far away.

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