Andrew Flintoff's fading hopes of featuring in next week's first Test against South Africa receded further yesterday when he failed again with the bat in his Championship comeback for Lancashire against Sussex.

Even though Lancashire moved into a considerable first innings lead against the champions at Hove thanks to captain Stuart Law's 79th first-class hundred, Flintoff, batting at No 8, fell for a jittery six when he struck Ollie Rayner's off-spin straight to mid-wicket.

Little chance: Andrew Flintoff's England return looks long off

England coach Peter Moores had already expressed justifiable concerns about rushing the all-rounder back into Test cricket so soon after his side injury and a more feasible target for Flintoff appears to be the second Test at Headingley, starting on July 18.

England will surely need Flintoff sooner or later against a South Africa team who continued flexing their muscles against an admittedly weakened Somerset team in their first warm-up match at Taunton.

The South Africans followed up their massive 515 for three declared by dismissing Somerset for 249 with Morne Morkel being the pick of the their bowlers with three wickets.

Only one of the many South Africans who are abandoning their country to earn their living in England stood in the tourists' way.

Johannesburg-born Craig Kieswetter, an exceptionally promising wicketkeeperbatsman who qualifies for England in 18 months' time, scored 67 for Somerset.

There was questioning of England's dismal one-day policy after their 3-1 defeat by New Zealand from a familiar face yesterday as Duncan Fletcher, the former coach, criticised the decision to make Kevin Pietersen captain. Fletcher, who is observing his former charges from his Cape Town base while he looks after his wife who has been in ill-health, said that the promotion of Pietersen to captain the side in place of the suspended Paul Collingwood had come too soon.

'Kevin is a free spirit and I'm worried the additional pressures of leadership will affect the way he bats,' said Fletcher. 'For me, Andrew Strauss should have been picked and made captain.'

Zimbabwe cricket boss Peter Chingoka, who has close links to the Mugabe government, made it clear he will fight any attempts to throw the representatives of the murderous regime out of world cricket at the ICC board meeting in Dubai tomorrow.

Chingoka has written to outgoing ICC president Ray Mali, who last week placed Zimbabwe's future on the board's agenda, accusing him of 'setting double standards and discriminatory levels that go against the ICC's anti-racism code.'