Friday 19 December 2014 16:39, UK
England's selectors will meet on Friday to decide whether Alastair Cook leads the one-day side at next year's World Cup.
Defeat over seven games in Sri Lanka took Cook's record as captain to five defeats in seven series, and it was a lean tour with the bat as the opener scored 119 runs in six innings.
The skipper retains the backing of the England and Wales Cricket Board's managing director Paul Downton, who told Sky Sports as recently as Tuesday it would be a big risk to remove Cook so close to the World Cup.
Downton does not have a vote but will be there on Friday as England's four selectors finalise a 15-man squad to take on Australia and India in a three-team series in January ahead of the main event, which begins in February.
The final call on whether Cook stays or goes will be made by head coach Peter Moores and the other three selectors - Angus Fraser, Mick Newell and chairman James Whitaker - and the decision will be announced on Saturday.
Calls for Cook to stand down have intensified in the wake of his and his side's 5-2 series defeat in Sri Lanka, and Ian Botham this week said Eoin Morgan should take over as captain with Alex Hales coming in to open.
"I personally wouldn't play Alastair Cook. I'm saying that now but I've been saying it for a year," Botham told Sky Sports News HQ.
"I think Alex Hales is a far better bet for the kind of cricket we want to play in Australia. When Eoin Morgan was captain he made a 50 and that's who I'd give the reins to for the World Cup."
Cook has admitted he can have no complaints if the selectors go down another road, but the Test captain is desperate to keep both jobs.
He said: "You dust yourself off and you go again. I'm captain of my country, yes it hasn't gone well over the last 12 months with my batting in the one-day game, but I would feel very wrong to walk away.
"If that decision gets taken out of my hands then I have to hold my hands up and say I haven't been good enough but until that moment I'll do what I always do. I'll work incredibly hard. I'm still incredibly hungry to do it."
