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The squad of 14 named by England for the crucial third test at Old Trafford contains some remarkable concepts. The recall of Atherton is no surprise considering he has made several large scores lately including a career best 268 in a county championship match. He was irked at being omitted early from the World Cup because of his bad back and who replaced him? Nasser Hussain, now the reigning captain! Suddenly Nasser has become the toast of England cricket, because he played a few slow knocks in the World Cup as a makeshift opener. He averages below 40 in test cricket, having had a chequered career that saw him in the wilderness for over three years until the Ashes tour of a couple of years ago. He batted well in the first two tests against us but is not the most technically correct player. He gets turned front on because of his footwork and this weakness will always make him vulnerable in test cricket. He was originally left out of the England World Cup squad although he had played tolerably well in Australia on the Ashes tour. Mike Gatting, one of the selectors, told me his head had gotten in the way and they couldn't find a way to get around it. hence his omission and ultimate substitution for Atherton. So who do England's selectors announce as their backup captain if Hussain can't play (which is highly probable)? Not Atherton, who has captained England in nearly half of his 88 tests. Not Thorpe who was the stand-in when Hussain left the field at Lord's. Not Ramprakash, captain of Middlesex. Not Stewart, preferred captain until the World Cup failures. Mark Butcher, who has played 21 tests and is struggling to consolidate his place. He is delegated the leadership if Hussain can't play. So his inexperience and natural nervousness at the double job, when he is not handling opening the batting all that well, is ignored as blithely as the claims of the others. Perhaps none of them wanted a passport to execution? So Hick is also recalled for the 8th time. That's nothing! Daffy de Freitas had 14 recalls and is probably still in the wings. Will Hick have suddenly learned to play the drive off the throat? Or more likely, will he go out and spear away knowing that he is on borrowed time? Which brings us to Peter Such. A couple of Ashes tours ago he took six wickets in the first innings of the first test at Old Trafford. Old England selectors don't forget that. Oh, he got five for a hundred or so at the MCG since. Ideal man for the job. If he is to play then Stewart has to take back the gloves to make room. This gives England a batting order of: Atherton, Butcher, Stewart, Thorpe, Hick, Ramprakash, Caddick, Headley, Such, Mullaly and Tufnell. This assumes they won't monkey around with the choice of Silverwood (who?). Nothing will surprise me. And look at the length of that tail! Batting stops at the just discovered Andy Caddick. This is brilliant, couldn't be better for us, this woolly, over-theorised England thinking. Coming then to the Black Caps, another good win over county champions Leicester in only three days gives them an extra day off, again. It's a great tour with plenty of golf and sight seeing. Three or four days before each test is superbly relaxed and gives them ample time to plot the strategy. What will it be? I'll bet you they play an unchanged side from Lord's. The excuses are all there: Never change a winning team, McMillan and Astle are in runs, Harry is neither in runs nor wickets, Twose can bowl offbreaks, O'Connor's 6 for 65 doesn't shove out Geoff Allott. Well, maybe an unchanged side is not such a bad thing, so long as they win. You know my view - they must play Harry. We'll soon see. Hey, did you like the way our Cornwall pro Vince Wells came up with a ton for Leicester against us? They dragged him away to play for England in Australia so we had to find another pro fast last season. Then they put Vince in the World Cup squad and never played him! A top man who would do a better job for England than most. | ||||||
