England split winter tour

England are aiming to combat the problems of long periods away during the winter, which may have contributed to the recent issues in St Lucia, by splitting their tour to Sri Lanka. The one-day and Test legs of the trip will be separate with a month of down time in between.

However, for the one-day players there is a hectic period before they get to put their feet up from mid-October. The squad is due to fly to South Africa for the Twenty20 World Championship as soon as the one-day series with India finishes on September 8. When the Twenty20 finishes on September 24 they will head straight onto Colombo for their five-match one-day series, which will last around two weeks.

The Test squad will fly out to Sri Lanka in mid-November, with the first Test scheduled to start on December 1 in Galle. Two more will follow in Colombo and Kandy before the players return home for Christmas and New Year on December 23. The second tour of the winter, to New Zealand, is due to start towards the end of January and run until March.

This won't be the first time England have split their winter programme. In 2001-02 the three-Test series with India was played before Christmas, then the seven ODIs took place early in 2002 before the squad flew onto New Zealand.