Use anger to your advantage, Botham tells England

Cuttack, India, January 21: Former England cricket great Ian Botham on Monday urged Nasser Hussain's tourists to use their anger over the umpiring as a weapon in the ongoing one-day series against India.

England were furious over a controversial umpiring decision in the first match at Calcutta, which cost centurion Marcus Trescothick his wicket and the tourists the match.

The left-handed opener hit a rapidfire 121 off 109 balls before being adjudged leg-before off a Javagal Srinath delivery which appeared to have pitched outside the leg-stump.

England, chasing 282, were strongly placed at 224-4 when Trescothick was removed by Indian umpire S. K. Sharma's contentious decision in the 36th over.

His dismissal sparked a collapse which saw England lose their last five wickets for 35 runs.

"They (England) must use their anger and disappointment to spur them on in the remaining five games," Botham wrote in the Times of India ahead of Tuesday's second match here.

"The series is still there to be won and they must not get dejected. From what I can make out, they are like wounded tigers who want to get back at the team that took the victory they (England) feel was theirs."

The umpiring decision was widely criticised in the Indian and British media, and renowned former cricketers also joined in.

"England were robbed," said former India captain Sunil Gavaskar, referring to the dubious decision.

Hussain said his team's preparations and performance would not be affected by the umpiring row.

"Decisions go against you," he said. "We are not going to dwell on them. We have to pick ourselves up. We have to be positive."

Match-referee Denis Lindsay of South Africa, meanwhile, said he had received a letter from England over the umpring issue.

"It is not really a complaint," he said. "They (England) have expressed concern. I have forwarded it to the Indian board."

The ICC is to introduce two neutral umpires for Tests from April and one home umpire and one neutral umpire for one-dayers.

Lindsay also said India will be fined for their slow over-rate in the Calcutta match.

He, however, said the amount of the fine was yet to be fixed.

India (from): Saurav Ganguly (capt), Sachin Tendulkar, Venkatsai Laxman, Virender Sehwag, Hemang Badani, Dinesh Mongia, Anil Kumble, Ajay Ratra, Harbhajan Singh, Sarandeep Singh, Javagal Srinath, Ajit Agarkar, Zaheer Khan, Sanjay Bangar.

England (from): Nasser Hussain (capt), Andrew Caddick, Paul Collingwood, Andrew Flintoff, James Foster, Ashley Giles, Darren Gough, Matthew Hoggard, Ben Hollioake, Nick Knight, Owais Shah, Jeremy Snape, Graham Thorpe, Marcus Trescothick, Michael Vaughan.

Umpires: V. K. Ramaswamy (Ind) and K. Parthasarthy (Ind).

Match-referee: Denis Lindsay (South Africa).