Broken thumb puts out Hussain

London- While the West Indies are optimistic Franklyn Rose and Shivnarine Chanderpaul will recover from muscle strains in time for the second Test, starting at Lord's on Thursday, England learned yesterday they will have to make do without captain Nasser Hussain.

For the second successive season, Hussain has been eliminated by a broken bone.

He is expected to be out of the game for a month, also ruling him out of the triangular series of One-Day Internationals, also involving Zimbabwe, July 6-23.

Hussain had to miss his third Test as captain, against New Zealand, last year after fracturing a finger in the preceding Test at Lord's.

His latest injury is a cracked right thumb, sustained batting for Essex against Nottinghamshire in the county championship on Saturday.

Alec Stewart, the batsman and wicket-keeper who is the oldest player in the team at 37, has been named to take over the post which he held before Hussain's appointment after last year's World Cup.

Michael Vaughan, the 25-year-old Yorkshire batsman, was included in the squad of 14 following Hussain's late withdrawal and is certain to be in the final XI.

Ironically, a broken finger kept Vaughan out of the two earlier Tests against Zimbabwe and the first against the West Indies.

In addition to Hussain's enforced change, England's selectors have also recalled the fast-medium swing bowler Dominic Cork and allrounder Craig White and chosen tall, 23-year-old fast bowler Matthew Hoggard for the first time.

Cork made a sensational debut against the West Indies in the 1995 series with figures of seven for 53 in England's victory at Lord's and a hat-trick at Old Trafford.

He has taken 98 wickets in 27 Tests.

White, a middle-order batsman and medium-pacer who was raised in Australia before moving back to his native Yorkshire, is picked for the first time since his eighth Test, in New Zealand three years.

Hoggard has played in South Africa for Free State but is in his first full season of county cricket.

The 14: Alec Stewart (captain), Michael Atherton, Mark Ramprakash, Michael Vaughan, Graeme Hick, Nick Knight, Andrew Flintoff, Dominic Cork, Robert Croft, Darren Gough, Andy Caddick, Craig White, Matthew Hoggard, Ed Giddins.