England have the squad to win the next Blind World Cup, according to Head Coach Ross Hunter.
Hunter’s charges were yesterday losing semi-finalists in the latest tournament, beaten by holders Pakistan in Cape Town.
England came fourth in the round-robin stage, earning the right to face the two-time winners in the last four.
Pakistan, who won all five of their group games and today play India in the final, overhauled England’s 284 for eight with eight wickets in hand.
After the defeat, Hunter told ecb.co.uk:“I couldn’t have asked anything more of the players. They worked really hard. They gave absolutely everything on the pitch.
“Support staff and management have been absolutely first-class, and have made the experience of the players and given them the opportunity to go on the pitch and play the best cricket they possibly can.
“For me, I’ve learnt a phenomenal amount. My first tournament as a head coach; I’ve seen how other nations do it. I’ve taken some stuff from other nations that we’re going to put into our games.
“But I’ve also found that we’ve got a squad of players here who can win a World Cup in the future.”
Perhaps key to England’s prospects at future World Cups is 25-year-old Luke Sugg, the current vice-captain, who yesterday hit his fourth century of a competition in which he amassed 629 runs.
Hunter added: “An outstanding tournament for him. He’s one of our hardest workers. He contributes all-round.
“An absolutely unbelievable tournament and he’s been well supported by other contributors, which I think has been the making of this team.
“We’ve got an honours board; I think we’ve got four or five people that have scored centuries. That is where we wanted to be.
“We’ve taken over 15 run-outs throughout the tournament. Our fielding’s been of a high quality and we’ve taken wickets against the best team.
“I think Luke will openly say that he’s been a massive contributor but he will also give respect to his team-mates who have supported him through that.”
Skipper Matt Dean also praised Sugg, saying: “We moved him up the order earlier on in the series and that paid off. He went back to four and he was still scoring runs there as well.
“He is a run-machine. He can play all round the pitch. He plays positively, aggressively.
“Luke is really coming to fruit on the talent he’s always had and hopefully he’s got many years left and he’ll go on to achieve great, big things.”