England Keen To Go One Step Further - Cook

After finishing as runners-up to India in the 2013 Champions Trophy, England captain Alastair Cook says his team will be doing everything possible to go one better at the 2015 World Cup.

Although England reached the final of the competition in 1979, 1987 and 1992, its recent record is poor, although winning the ICC World Twenty20 in 2010 and this year's performance on home soil have shown that improvement is being made.

In 2003, their campaign was dogged by off-field issues and boycotting games in Zimbabwe contributed to their failure to reach the final stages, in 2007 they were again rocked by off-field incidents and ended without threatening the semi-finals and although they reached the quarter-finals in 2011, they were thrashed by Sri Lanka having earlier lost to Ireland in the group stages.

Cook, however, points to the recent improvements and says his side is looking forward to the next World Cup, which gets underway in Australia and New Zealand in February 2015.

“We have been improving steadily as a one-day side in recent years and are very much looking forward to the challenge of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015," he said.

“We got close to winning our first 50-over ICC event finishing as runners up in the ICC Champions Trophy 2013 and will be working hard in the coming months to ensure we give ourselves the best possible opportunity to go one step further in 2015," he added.

If recent World Cup memories are not good, their recent experiences in Australia are better, includnig the Ashes victory in 2010/11 that ended a long run of one-sided series in the hosts' favour.

"Playing cricket in Australia and New Zealand is always a fantastic experience and I have no doubt it will be another great occasion both for the teams and their supporters," Cook said.

England are placed in Group A of the World Cup and they will take on Australia, Bangladesh, New Zealand, Sri Lanka and two qualifiers, one of which will be Afghanistan or the United Arab Emirates.

© Cricket World 2013