The Hindu : Sport : David Graveney's warning to the England players

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Monday, Jun 04, 2007
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David Graveney's warning to the England players

Ted Corbett

LONDON: David Graveney, the chairman of selectors, warned the England players that they are "not bomb proof" and that there are plenty of ambitious cricketers in the counties waiting to take their place.

Graveney is hardly the Alec Ferguson among cricket people for he speaks softly and rarely pulls rank. Still, there was no doubting his intention on Sunday to tell the England players that they had no comfort zone. He cited the example of Ryan Sidebottom who keeps his place in the side for the third Test after bowling out eight West Indians at Leeds last week. A week earlier Sidebottom was a forgotten bowler barely noticed outside Nottingham.

Not a closed shop

"We are all pleased for Ryan," said Graveney, "who has acted as a reminder to the rest of the England players that there is plenty of talent in the domestic game. The Test squad is not a closed shop nor is the performance squad of 25 which we pick at the start of every season. The players are certainly not bomb proof. Perhaps one day we will be in the same position as Australia which has a large number of players competing for a few places."

Resentment

This statement also echoes Graveney's resentment of stories circulating among the counties that it is "more difficult to get out of the England team than to get in" and that what used to be called The England Club has been reconvened. In the 1980s it was also considered that once a cricketer was in the side he would have to play very badly indeed to lose his place.

Graveney added that Andrew Flintoff, who had a keyhole operation on his left ankle on Friday night, could be expected to "play a full part" in an England side by the end of the summer. "I have had a report from our medical team which says just that," he said. "There was a lot of debris in his ankle but we are convinced that Freddie will be back at his best by the end of the summer."

Various rumours fly round the cricket circuit: that Flintoff will have to give up bowling his 90 miles an hour thunderbolts altogether, that he will no longer bowl in one-day internationals; that his best hope of a Test place is as a batsman only. "I only know what the medical team say," Graveney said. "I feel that Freddie will be inspired by Michael Vaughan's return from long lay-off after an injury that was far worse."

Bold signal

The team is unchanged, reduced already to the same players who defeated West Indies by a record margin at Headingley, but with provision for the fast bowler James Anderson to join up on Wednesday evening after he has already begun a match with Lancashire. It sends out a bold signal from a confident side, something the ultra-cautious Duncan Fletcher would never have contemplated. It even suggests that England will win the two remaining Tests at will.

West Indies has called up its batsman extraordinary Marlon Samuel who in the same match will play an innings of unsurpassed brilliance and commit suicide with a shot even a tail-ender would disdain. It is this irrational behaviour that caused him to be left out of the original tour party. He is hardly an adequate replacement for the captain Ramnaresh Sarwan, a classic batsman now nursing his injured shoulder back in Trinidad.

England team (from): Michael Vaughan (captain), Andrew Strauss, Alastair Cook, Ian Bell, Kevin Pietersen, Paul Collingwood, Matthew Prior, Steve Harmison, Monty Panesar, Liam Plunkett, Ryan Sidebottom, James Anderson.

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