WAGS can lift spirits - Fletcher - Sport in brief

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The presence of the wives and girlfriends for large parts of the Ashes tour earlier this winter was cited as a major factor in England's humiliating 5-0 whitewash but coach Fletcher welcomed their arrival at England's Antigua base and believes they could provide an uplifting effect on the squad.

"We've done it on previous tours and on some of the tours when they've arrived we've put in some very solid performances," Fletcher said. "India was a good example a few years ago when we were losing 1-0 in the Test series and the wives arrived and we ended up drawing the series - they do help when they are arrive."

England certainly need their spirits lifting after three successive sub-standard displays against the associate nations of Canada, Kenya and Ireland.

But this week they face Sri Lanka and world champions Australia and defeat in both of those matches will effectively end their hopes of reaching the semi-finals for the first time since 1992.

"We've got to the stage now where we've got some big matches to play," admitted Fletcher. "Sri Lanka is going to be a huge game for us on Wednesday.

"But having lost to New Zealand we have to make sure we win every game from here on in. This is the biggest week of our World Cup so far because we're up against the big countries now.

"We need to find consistency. We just don't seem to be consistent and we have to be very careful that when we don't play well, other sides can take advantage of that situation and we'll struggle to get out of that."