England greeted by thunder and lightning

When England's players arrived in Sri Lanka they expected to be scorched by the sun and suffocated by the humidity. However, as Nasser Hussain started his first press conference in Colombo, thunder rumbled over the city and lightning carved up the dark skies. For the last two weeks unseasonal rains have drenched Sri Lanka and left large parts of the country flooded. The rains are sure to hamper the teams practice facilities and could well jeopardise the first practice match on Monday.

However, if the weather has been unpredictable, the questions posed to Nasser Hussain were entirely to be expected. Once again the focus of attention was Muttiah Muralitharan. So far, Hussain has been fulsome in his praise of Sri Lanka's master off spinner and tonight he again paid tribute to the bowler.

Asked whether he felt that Muralitharan's action was controversial he replied, " I am not interested in his action. The ICC has cleared him and he is playing with great distinction for Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka should be proud of him and he could well become one of the best bowlers of all time."

He denied that the English batsmen had a psychological problem with him and said that it was up to each individual to devise their own strategy, "Different batsmen play in different ways and we will leave it up the individual players. We have video footage of all the Sri Lankan bowlers and everyone will look at that and work out their best game plan."

When bluntly asked whether England's spinners were equipped to succeed in Sri Lanka, the first flash of irritation was evident as he tersely replied, "I am not going to stand up here and back up my team to you. We will see if they are equipped or not. Ashley Giles did extremely well in Pakistan and we have brought a couple here that haven't played for a while and they now have a great opportunity."

Nevertheless he was quick to downplay expectations, "England are not doing exceptionally well. We have had a good year but there is no need in going over the top. However, we have lost both our last Test Matches to Sri Lanka and we are here to learn from them. Australia are the ones playing exceptional cricket and that is the standard that we have to try and reach."

Duncan Fletcher was not prepared to make any grand judgments either, "We are just focusing on the First Test Match in Galle and will take it from there," but he countered the view that victories against West Indies and Zimbabwe were relatively worthless, "West Indies were on the way down, but remember where we were. You have to start somewhere. The way we finished off against West Indies showed that we were improving and since then we have been to Pakistan where we played some very good cricket."

Fletcher believed that it was difficult to pinpoint one reason for the upturn in English fortunes, but felt that selection was one area of improvement. "We are more consistent in selection and have given individuals an extended run in the side. This has given each individual confidence that are going to be given a good opportunity to show how good they are."

Asked about his relationship with Hussain he commented, "One area in which we are very similar is that we are passionate about winning and being successful for England. I think we complement each other. He is very direct and I can handle the man management side."

He is clearly impressed with Hussain's captaincy stating, "I think he is a very good and shrewd captain. His field placings are sometimes unusual, but when you sit back and look at it, you see that he has a very good understanding of the game and he quickly reads the opposition batsmen. That is a huge advantage and I don't think that many captains are able to do this."

England practiced this afternoon and will continue to acclimatise until Monday, when they play a two-day game against a young BCCSL Colts XI.