EAST LONDON (South Africa), Feb 15: England’s much-delayed entrance into the World Cup is due to take place on Sunday when they face minnows Holland here at Buffalo Park.

Nasser Hussain’s men should have started the tournament against co-hosts Zimbabwe in Harare on Thursday but, after months of agonising, finally decided in the wake of death threats to forfeit the fixture on security grounds.

Several days of meetings were not the ideal way to prepare for Sunday’s match and, in another move that would have had old-timers shaking their heads, England also spent over two hours with a sports psychologist on Thursday.

Adding to England’s off-field problems is the left side injury to Craig White which is set to sideline the all-rounder from Sunday’s match.

Veteran wicket-keeper/batsman Alec Stewart has been continuing to receive ice-treatment for a persistent hand condition but is expected to be fit.

Holland bowled India out for just 204 in their opener at Boland Park.

The Buffalo Park surface, where the ball can stop on the batsman, is likely to be equally helpful to what Holland’ star in Paarl, Tim de Leede, called their “military-medium style of bowling.” De Leede finished with career-best figures of four for 35 against India.

Teams (from):

ENGLAND: Nasser Hussain (captain), James Anderson, Ian Blackwell, Andrew Caddick, Paul Collingwood, Andrew Flintoff, Ashley Giles, Stephen Harmison, Matthew Hoggard, Ronnie Irani, Nick Knight, Alec Stewart, Marcus Trescothick, Michael Vaughan, Craig White.

HOLLAND: Roland Lefebvre (captain), Luuk van Troost, Daan van Bunge, Jacob Esmeijer, Victor Grandia, Feiko Kloppenburg, Tim de Leede, Henk Mol, Klaus van Noortwijk, Adeel Raja, Edgar Schiferli, Reinhout Scholte, Jeroen Smits, Nick Statham, Bas Zuiderent.

Umpires: Rudi Koertzen (South Africa) and Darrell Hair (Australia).

TV umpire: Tyronne Wijewardena (Sri Lanka).

Match referee: Mike Procter (South Africa).—AFP