WORCESTERSHIRE'S Graeme Hick is lucky to be on England's tour of Sri Lanka -- according to the England and Wales Cricket Board's own official web-site.

Hick is one of a number of England players who come in for some stinging criticism on the site, including skipper Nasser Hussain.

The New Road master batsman is regarded as being "quite fortunate to make the trip".

The ECB site claims: "The team simply cannot afford regular failures from their number three," when referring to captain Hussain's recent lack of runs, while off-spinner Robert Croft "will need to improve his performances markedly if he is to make an impression on the tour."

The most fierce criticism, though, is reserved for three of England's brightest young hopes, with the site claiming opener Marcus Trescothick "still gives his wicket away too often when set, trying to dominate."

Yorkshire batsman Michael Vaughan, sidelined for the majority of the Pakistan tour with calf trouble, gets "bogged down on a slow track against tight bowling" and, referring to his troubles before Christmas, the site added: "it should be remembered he failed in all his warm-up innings".

Meanwhile, Headingley team-mate Matthew Hoggard was labelled as "neither the quickest nor the most talented of the England hopefuls."

Graham Thorpe's good recent form "may well herald promotion to the captaincy," which may come as a big surprise to current skipper Hussain after his recent success.

The ECB has ordered an immediate inquiry with highly-successful internet firm Cricinfo, who co-host ECB.co.uk, about how the embarrassing pen-pictures were allowed to surface on the official site of English cricket.

"We will be discussing this matter with Cricinfo at the earliest opportunity," confirmed a Board spokesman. "The pen-pictures were not endorsed by the ECB as the day-to-day running of the site is the responsibility of Cricinfo.

"The Board is keen to see the England team portrayed in a positive light and our view is that the pen-pictures do not fully reflect the achievements of the team over the past 12 months."

The embarrassing gaffe came to light when the media at the opening-day press conference of the tour were given a print-out of the profiles.

Cricinfo attempted to distance themselves from the controversy by claiming it was picked up off the Sri Lankan web-site, but the profiles were accessible on the Lord's version until they became public knowledge and were hastily removed.