England announces one-day squad

By Ted Corbett

LONDON, OCT. 17. England's 16-man squad for this winter's one-day international series in India and New Zealand includes 11 members of the squad who toured Zimbabwe plus Andrew Caddick, Darren Gough, Ashley Giles, Michael Vaughan and Craig White. It means that Gough has escaped censure for dropping out of cricket until after Christmas, although he will still not play in the Test series which follows in New Zealand.

Today's announcement ignores the obvious fact that this tour has little more chance of taking place than the Test series which is likely to be cancelled during the meeting of ICC in Kuala Lumpur this week but, almost three months in advance, the England and Wales Cricket Board is right to press on with its plans regardless of the political state of the world.

Paul Grayson, James Kirtley, Mark Ramprakash, Ryan Sidebottom and Chris Silverwood are omitted from the squad that defeated Zimbabwe 5-0 in the one-day series earlier this month but only the dropping of Ramprakash is a surprise. He batted with composure, bowled effectively and fielded as brilliantly as always but is left out to give a place to Owais Shah whose only contribution to the series in Zimbabwe was to bat for two balls. The sweep shot that brought his duck was ill-advised, badly played and too early in his innings but, there you go, the England selectors have forgiven him for his rush of blood to the head. Shah is young enough to learn to cut out his rash moments before the 2003 World Cup.

England will play a five-match series in India in January before flying on to New Zealand for five matches: all ten games being a much needed steep learning curve for some players and a necessary if inadequate build-up to the next World Cup. Even at this distance it looks as if the 2003 side will still lean heavily on the old hands like Nasser Hussain, Graham Thorpe, Gough, Caddick and White, now recovered from the minor operation which kept him out of the Zimbabwe series.

David Graveney, chairman of selectors said: ``We have chosen this squad with a view to building a one-day side for the next World Cup in South Africa and beyond. A number of experienced players have been omitted, but we have not drawn a line under anybody's name and will continue to consider players who perform strongly in domestic one-day cricket. Kirtley, Sidebottom and Silverwood all provided strong competition for places in the pace bowling department. We would like to emphasise that Kirtley remains very much part of our plans and his omission is wholly unrelated to the ICC match referee's decision to report him for a suspect bowling action.''

``Michael Vaughan returns to the squad now that he is fully recovered from injury and his inclusion will give us cover for the established openers (Marcus Trescothick and Nick Knight) as well as providing competition in the middle order. We were also keen to retain Owais Shah as he performed well during the summer and had limited opportunity to impress in Zimbabwe. Gough has only made himself available for a one-day contract this winter and, regardless of his performances, he will not be considered for the New Zealand Tests.''

It is a much stronger squad than the one that defeated the hapless Zimbabweans who could not win a match in which their greatest batsman Andy Flower made a century described as one of the finest ever seen in a one-day game. Perhaps it was the finest achievement of Hussain's men that pushed the altercation between Hussain, Flower and the new wicket-keeper James Foster to the back of their minds as they romped to victory in that match in Harare. I suspect Hussain's own undisciplined past allowed him to understand Foster who is rightly given the huge responsibility of being the only keeper for the Indian trip.

The squad:

Nasser Hussain (captain), James Foster (both Essex), Andrew Caddick, Marcus Trescothick (Somerset), Paul Collingwood, (Durham), Andrew Flintoff (Lancashire), Nick Knight, Ashley Giles (Warwickshire), Michael Vaughan, Craig White, Darren Gough, Matthew Hoggard (Yorkshire), Graham Thorpe, Ben Hollioake (Surrey), Owais Shah (Middlesex) and Jeremy Snape (Gloucestershire).

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