Nasser Hussain is not a happy man. On the eve of the NatWest Series, Hussain admitted that he was less than impressed with England's preparation for the tournament, accusing the authorities of continuing to treat the one-day game as Test cricket's poor relation.

Their opposition in the series - India and Sri Lanka - have each had three warm-up matches while England have had to make do with just one game, against Wales on Monday. That, plus the fact that the squad assembled in dribs and drabs over the weekend (due to county commitments), has left Hussain fuming.

"I do believe we're undercooked and it's something I'm talking to the board about on a regular basis about how we view one-day cricket," he said. "You can't just expect people to come together for a two and a half week tournament, some of them coming from a Benson & Hedges Cup final, and some of them coming from another game, and some you haven't seen all summer."

Unlike the Test elite who have central contracts awarded by the England and Wales Cricket Board, the one-day squad have no such deal, meaning that they are made available at the behest of the counties. "They're all non-contracted and doing their own things," said Hussain. "We as a country have to place a lot more emphasis on one-day cricket and one-day contracts, especially with the World Cup coming up. It all seems a bit after the Lord Mayor's show. We need to place more emphasis on one-day cricket so we don't do our usual thing of starting slowly. It's something I've had meetings with the ECB about earlier in the year. If people have six-month contracts for Test cricket, why not the same for one-day cricket?

"We shouldn't be making it feel like the second most important thing. It should be the most important thing and people like Nick Knight, Jeremy Snape and Paul Collingwood should be looked after throughout the summer and be contracted. They're just as important as the players who only play Test cricket and with the World Cup coming up we have to place a lot more importance on the one-day set-up."

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