The England cricket team arrived in Zimbabwe Thursday morning for a 17-day tour of five one-day matches hoping to end a losing streak stretching to last year.

Speaking soon after arrival at the Harare International airport England manager Phillip Neale said that they were expecting a tough battle against Zimbabwe given that the tourists have been struggling with their one-day game.

"We know Zimbabwe is a very competitive side. They will be trying to put right what happened the last time England were here. We are not expecting to win all the matches as was the case last time but we will be trying to do that and Zimbabwe will be trying to do the same.

"We get along very well with Zimbabwean players. We have good relations and I am sure you will see some exciting cricket played in high sprits.

"Zimbabwe have been playing so much cricket against South Africa so they will be in good form. We are just coming at the back of last season where we have been playing cricket pretty well all the way through.

"I am sure that we will be comfortable with the conditions in Zimbabwe. The altitude maybe a little problem with the heat, but we will try and acclimatise as quickly as possible. We might find it difficult in the first week but we should be getting stronger by the end of the week.

"As for the pitches I understand that there are some good pitches in Zimbabwe now, different to what we used to have in the past. The pace is coming back into the pitches and the pitches in England are not that fast so I think we will be fine."

Neale said that the tour is very important for England as they start building a team for the 2003 World Cup in South Africa. The team comprises of five uncapped players and four with fewer than 10 caps.

"It's a very important tour for us. We need to gain more experience in one-day cricket. We have got a group of young players who are trying to find a new place in the team to take us to the 2003 World Cup. "We've got a hardcore of our senior players and also some good young players who are looking to see which ones are going to claim places in the team for the World Cup."

"We are disappointed with our one-day form. We have identified the fact that compared to other international countries, we play far less one-day cricket. That's why we are pleased to have this extra series of five one-dayers. We will be looking to play as much one day cricket as we can prior to the 2003 World Cup."

Neale however, denied that the slump in England's one-day cricket form, which has seen them lose 11 consecutive matches, is a result of a drop in the standards of the domestic county cricket.

"It's not necessarily a drop in the standards of county cricket. One thing that we need to work on is to have more one-day matches on our tours.

"In our itinerary, one-day matches have tended to be a tag to the Test matches. The one-day guys have come out for just a short period of time. We have never had the team together for a long period.

"This winter we are trying to work on keeping the one-day squad for long periods of time to get the team a chance to gel. And also to try and keep the same group of players together so that we can work out the roles within the team.

"So I don't agree with the view that our county cricket is declining."

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