Thorpe's retirement puts World Cup plans in chaos

Graham Thorpe dealt a heavy blow to England's plans for the World Cup in South Africa next spring when he announced his retirement from one-day international cricket yesterday. The Surrey left-hander, who was missing from England's last three matches in the NatWest Series, revealed that he was having difficulty coping with the demands of combining Test cricket and limited-overs internationals and will concentrate on the longer form of the game.

"In terms of keeping my body fit, it's becoming harder to do, playing both Tests and one-day internationals, so I've decided to concentrate on just playing Test matches," said Thorpe, who will be 33 on 1 August. "I also want to have more time to build a relationship with my two children, given my new personal circumstances at home." He was forced to return home during the tour to India last winter after the breakdown of his marriage.

Thorpe had played 82 one-day internationals for England and averaged 37.18 with 21 half-centuries. Though he never scored a century, his accumulative presence in the middle order was regarded as crucial to the cause as England try to find a winning formula by next February.

The England coach, Duncan Fletcher, said: "Graham's been a fantastic one-day player for England and we'll miss him, but we look forward to him continuing to be a key player in our Test match side.

"Graham got an injury halfway through this series which allowed us to play Michael Vaughan," he added, explaining the absence of one of England's most reliable batsmen. "Given that he let us know his decision to retire from the one-day team at that time we decided it was a good opportunity to continue with Michael in the side and let him gain further valuable experience in one-day internationals."

NatWest agreed a new three-year deal to sponsor the annual one-day triangular tournament on Friday, to the huge relief of the England and Wales Cricket Board as they seek to invest some £3 million in 12-month contracts for up to 20 players. It was rumoured that the bank would end their 21-year association because of England's continuing struggle in the limited-overs game and because of a takeover by the Royal Bank of Scotland, whose spiritual home is in a country where the game is not high on the sporting agenda.

The new deal will increase the bank's involvement. As well as the NatWest Series, which started in 2000, they will also put their name to a series of three one-day internationals against the early-season tourists, which is being introduced to milk the shorter game's popularity and to ensure that England play more one-dayers to catch up with the rest of the world. "This is important for the game," said the ECB's corporate affairs director, John Read. "They are long-term supporters of cricket. It is a crowded marketplace out there, where sports sponsorship is increasingly hard to come by."

The ECB will have settled for an agreement which shows little improvement on the original one. But the continuity is crucial. A detailed report, to be put before the First Class Forum on 12 August, is being finalised by John Carr, the ECB's director of cricket operations. He is convinced that the game can now afford it with the release of additional cash from the television contract, which runs until 2005.

Players will effectively be employed by the ECB as members of Team England on 12-month contracts starting in October. "Some of the finer points have still to be worked out," said Carr. "One of the issues on which we must seek to get a proper balance is between counties who happen to be providing a number of centrally contracted players and those who are not."