He also stressed that England needed more experience of one-day matches abroad.

"We need to come back and play in these countries a lot more before we can seriously gave them a game of one-day cricket," Thorpe added.

"We've been really proud of our performances this winter, both in Pakistan and here.

"We fell away a little bit in the one-day series, but generally our performance has been very good this winter and we're all proud of that."

England opener Alec Stewart echoed his comments.

He said: "The defeat has shown our lack of international one day experience. Also we had four or five players coming out after a months without playing and a few of us had to lift ourselves after a tough series.

"We have a very good one-day record at home, but the future may see us compete in more one-day games overseas in preparation for the World Cup."

Sri Lanka delight

But he called for evolution rather than revolution.

"We don't want to throw four or five new players in at once, The nucleus of this side will be there come World Cup time," he added.

Sri Lanka, meanwhile, were content to focus on their victory.

Team captain Sanath Jayasuriya, who missed that match through injury, said: "We lost the Test series and badly needed to win this one-day series. All the players played really well."