ENGLAND cricket boss David Morgan will be having talks with his Sri Lankan counterparts after criticism over the timing of the country's one-day internationals there this month, writes Gary Baker.

Captain Michael Vaughan saw the final one-dayer between the country's washed out and England denied the chance to avenge their defeat in the first of the three-match tournament.

And Vaughan was distraught after the decision that no play could go ahead in Colombo where the pitch was uncovered and open to the elements.

The tour had been arranged while the rains were in swing, and Vaughan said: "The tour brought us out to Sri Lanka in November and monsoon season.

"You are always going to struggle with the amount of rain we have had here. Sri Lanka is a great tour, it is just disappointing the weather is spoiling it."

And in today's Argus, Glamorgan's former England opener Steve James has joined in the chorus about the timing.

James says: "It has not been good. In fact, it has been just like you'd expect from a monsoon season.

"Which, as we now know, it is. Why oh why was this series scheduled for now?"

Morgan, the Newport-based chairman of the England and Wales Cricket Board, said that the schedule was made by Sri Lanka not the ECB.

He added: "They are the organisers who decide the timing. It's the host nation who decide when it's proper to play international cricket.

"Of course, we are off to the West Indies after Christmas and I think this has been a very painful experience for supporters of the England team who have spent a great deal of money going to Sri Lanka to see just one match instead of three.

"And the fact that we lost that one badly must make it even worst for them. "I sympathise with our supporters and players.

"When I get to Sri Lanka before Christmas, I will certainly talk to my counterparts there about this."

Morgan, though, added that the ECB could find themselves in a similar pickle next year when a New Zealand tour England next May.