Hussain, Mullally make a return

By Ted Corbett

LONDON, AUG. 12. The England selectors, meeting for the second time in three days, debated their choices for the Headingley Test against Australia for eight hours on Saturday and finally came up with a squad of 13 that is barely different from the other three sides put out this summer.

Most of the time was taken up with a discussion on how to discipline Mark Butcher who has been reported out early in the morning during the third Test in Nottingham. I understand he has been fined and the matter may be allowed to rest, but there is still a mood among his bosses to impose stronger measures against the left-handed England batsman and dropping him out of the squad was one of the subjects that kept the selectors at work from 11 a.m. until they adjourned after 7p.m.

In all, the four - skipper Nasser Hussain, Duncan Fletcher, the coach, David Graveney, the chairman and Geoff Miller, the former Test all-rounder - have spent more than ten hours attempting to put together their best side.

There is little evidence that their time has been well used. Ian Ward, a batsman with more confidence than technique, has been dropped and Craig White, the all-rounder who has had the fire in his belly replaced by mild background heating, has been rested and will, it is presumed, be restored by the tour of India.

Hussain returns after a week in which he has made 75 for the Essex second team. Alan Mullally returns after bowling the Australians out in their defeat by Hampshire and Richard Johnson, the bright young fast bowler of the moment, is included after taking three wickets for Somerset on its way to the final of the Cheltenham and Gloucester Trophy.

In his second spell Johnson, with the wind behind him on a gusty Taunton ground, produced a number of deliveries in the 88 miles an hour range and unsettled Warwickshire batsmen who had been at the crease for some time. He was chosen for the Trent Bridge Test but only as cover after the injured Chris Silverwood. Early in his career Ray Illingworth picked him for the tour of South Africa in 1995-6. He had to drop out of the tour with an injury but there is no doubt that when he is fit Johnson, 26, is a better prospect than, for instance, Glen Chapple of Lancashire. Matthew Hoggard of Yorkshire is still injured.

The selectors are hoping that when they update the squad for the Oval Test, which follows just two days after the Leeds Test is due to finish - no Ashes Test has gone into a fifth day - Graham Thorpe and Michael Vaughan will be fit. They have had no cricket since Thorpe broke a finger and Vaughan has a minor knee operation but both have chances to play next week-end.

Somerset won its semifinal by four wickets after one of the most intriguing one-day games I have seen in a long time. Warwickshire made 228 with deliberate caution and when three Somerset wickets fell in the first three overs it seemed that Warwickshire would make yet another appearance in a limited overs final at Lord's.

However a stand of 100 in 87 balls by Rob Turner and Keith Dutch, who was man of the match for the only 50, gave Somerset victory with four overs to spare. Dutch is, like Johnson, an emigre from Middlesex but if England is looking for a new man to fill the space left vacant by Alec Stewart's wish to avoid the tour of India then he may be the man.

Stewart will bat No. 7 at Headingley, Hussain will go in at No. 5 and the final place is between the bowlers, Johnson, Robert Croft and Mullally.

lThe squad: Nasser Hussain (captain), Michael Atherton, Marcus Trescothick, Mark Butcher, Mark Ramprakash, Usman Afzaal, Alec Stewart, Alex Tudor, Andrew Caddick, Darren Gough, Richard Johnson, Robert Croft, Alan Mullally.

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