Wright: Let's start fresh

Sussex all-rounder Wright was part of the England line-up who slumped to a humiliating 10-wicket defeat during the US Dollars 20million match in Antigua, which prompted widespread condemnation about their involvement in the event.

That was followed by a gruelling journey spanning 48 hours from Antigua to Mumbai, which took in Barbados, Gatwick, Heathrow and Dubai before they arrived in their base for the two warm-up matches yesterday afternoon.

But Wright believes England's one-day squad, whose spirits had been lifted by a convincing 4-0 series win over South Africa at the end of the summer, can feed off the fanaticism for cricket in India and bounce back strongly from their Stanford nightmare.

"Losing the game was obviously very disappointing but it is a five-year contract and I'm sure a lot of the lads will get to play in it again," he said.

"I'm sure they'll probably tackle it slightly differently in the future. We've always said our main priority was these games coming up (in India) and it's still exactly the same - now we're out here it's given us a chance to move on."

Wright has echoed captain Kevin Pietersen's call to "buy into" the event more next year if England continue with the annual challenge match, although their participation in it may depend on an ECB review into this year's showdown.

"I know a few of the guys were uneasy about what was going on back home because all the build-up had been about the money," explained Wright. "If we go again we've just got to accept that's what it's about and really take it on.

"Most of us are used to playing for the pride of playing for your country so to just play for money, especially when you know there were a lot of people back were not so sure about it and what it was doing to the traditions of cricket, made it difficult.

"It felt like a very selfish game, but none of the lads agreed this contract, it's something we've put into and we've just got to embrace it."

England are due to train tomorrow afternoon having been given the morning off to recover from their arduous journey as they begin the preparations for the first of two warm-up matches on Sunday, which precede a seven-match one-day series against India.

The venue for the sixth match in that series in Guwahati on November 29 remains in doubt with England admitting they are "monitoring developments" after car bombs killed over 70 people in the city last week.

The BCCI, India's governing body, have held talks with England are believed to be considering switching the venue to Kolkata instead if the situation deteriorates.