England coach Duncan Fletcher is not a happy man.

He has been disappointed, and surprised, by the lack of fitness of those players in the England touring side who joined the team for the Test leg of the tour.

With only the Canterbury game, starting tomorrow, in which to work on their fitness there is no recovery time for those players, and England risk being below par when they start the first Test in Christchurch on Wednesday next week.

Fletcher said all the players had been given fitness programmes but not all the players adhered to them.

It was ironic that he should air his frustration while the team trained at New Zealand Cricket's High Performance Centre complex at Lincoln University because the practice wickets at Jade Stadium were wet.

The complex is regarded as the finest in the world and some of the innovations coming out of it, and the personnel stationed there, have been trend-setting.

But there is nothing especially out of the rocket science manual in a fitness advisor being part of the administration at the Centre. He monitors the fitness of all the leading players in New Zealand and regularly checks that fitness regimes are being maintained.

The players work on an Internet-based system that they plug into from their own computers and the fitness advisors can log into. Special attention is placed on contracted players.

If there are any concerns, NZC fitness advisor Warren Frost gets on the cellphone immediately.

And if they are not getting on with the job?

"I get on their case straight away," Frost said.

Surprising as it may seem, there was no monitoring element involved in the England preparations for those players joining the tour out of the English winter.

Fletcher said it was something that would have to be sorted out at the end of the tour.

England's players were professionals and supposed to present themselves fit and ready for play.

"I know which guys weren't fit," Fletcher said.

England would look to put the best team on the field to win the Test matches.

For the match against Canterbury starting tomorrow, the side will not be named until the last possible moment.

However, Marcus Trescothick will not play as he has been given the break he was looking for. Andrew Flintoff has a knee worry which isn't serious and either he or batsman Graham Thorpe could be given a break as well.

The game was very important, especially to the players who have joined the tour as the Test match specialists. Even some of the players who have been involved in the one-day series but who are also contenders for the Tests, need to get out of the one-day mode.

Some of them were guilty of sparring at balls in the nets in one-day style rather than in usual Test-match mode.

After the failure to bowl out Otago in either innings, it is likely to be a much tougher job to contain a more experienced Canterbury side.

© CricInfo