There was definitely progress on the ODI front. Beating the World Cup runners-up in a series in their home country is a big achievement. It may be that England just can’t sustain progress in more than one form of the game at a time, though.

One can criticize the scheduling of the test series - not only for the fact that it was during the rainy season, but also the lack of rest between tests. England was obviously tired during the third test, but the test series was apparently decided when Sri Lanka’s batsmen took control in the second innings of the first test.

If you want to know what fit…..and ..tired….are…..go and have a talk to the real professionals…..the riders in The Tour de France !
As long as we have a system that pays regardless of performance we will continue to have the sort of lack lustre games that we have seen in all types of cricket and football over recent years.
Look at the Athletes ,a basic training allowance if you have potential……then you have to go out and win to get the big money……most of our stars would have twinkled out long ago.

The Tour de France riders - whom I’ve seen passing through my neighborhood the past 3 years, are amazingly fit (unnaturally so, it would seem), but they do not have to maintain the same level of mental concentration over long periods that’s required for slips fielding or wicket-keeping. Plus their event, while long and grueling, takes place only once per year and basically all in the same place (where the climate is perhaps more comfortable for athletes than that of Sri Lanka).

Plus I don’t think the fact that the schedule in NZ will be similar to that in SL means that the SL schedule should not have worn them out. Compressed tour schedules will reduce the quality of the visiting team’s performance, whether it’s from fatigue or from rotating in fresh but under-prepared players.

In any case, the series was not lost due to fatigue, but due to England’s failure to capitalize on Hoggard’s great bowling on the first day of the test series.