England need an injection of new blood (26 June 1999)

26 June 1999

England need an injection of new blood

Michael Henderson

When the three England selectors meet Nasser Hussain this evening to pick the side for the first Test against New Zealand, which begins at Edgbaston next Thursday, they are on trial as surely as the players they discuss. In making their deliberations, David Graveney, Mike Gatting and Graham Gooch should bear in mind the considered view of a performer who tills a different field.

"Acting," David Hare, the playwright, once told that splendid critic, Michael Billington, "is a judgment of character." Read that again, gentlemen, and digest. Cricket also reveals the inner man like no other game, and in matters of selection, opinions, which are two a penny, count for less than judgment.

For all the talk in recent years of fresh starts, the selectors have rarely had a better chance of making a 'policy statement' than they have today. The cricket-lovers of England are expecting change; indeed, they are crying out for it. They are fed up with inadequate performances and hearing the gasbags at Lord's waffle on about management structures. They want some new blood, and they want it now.

How judicious are the judges? To find out, this simple test will suffice. If Alec Stewart opens the batting ahead of Michael Vaughan, it will be a disappointment. If Paul Nixon is preferred as wicketkeeper to Chris Read, it will be a mistake. If Andrew Caddick wins the vote over either Chris Silverwood or Dean Headley, it will be a disgrace.

Stewart, first. Hussain indicated at his press conference yesterday that he remained loyal to the man he has succeeded, but that is no reason for picking him. There is always a time, as the new captain said, when one must distinguish between a loss of form and permanent decline. Stewart has crossed that line.

A spritely man at 35, he is now visibly older one year on, and he has not justified his position by weight of runs. He has served England very well, as batsman, wicketkeeper and captain, and it wasn't his fault that he could not juggle all three jobs. No man ever could. It is not the end of the world, merely the end of an international career. These things happen all the time.

Part of the problem with this team in the past decade has been how best to accommodate Stewart. Does he keep, or doesn't he? Does he open, or come in down the order? There is now a glorious chance to end that uncertainty, which has damaged the team's development. Jolly well done, Alec. You have nothing of which you can be ashamed.

Vaughan, 24, who won good notices for his leadership of the England A touring party last winter, has enjoyed a mixed start to the season, though he did make two hundreds in the match against Essex. If the selectors are not going to promote him now, when a vacancy clearly exists, then they never will. And if they do not think that he's ready, then it may reasonably be said that A tours serve little purpose.

Stewart's replacement behind the stumps will surely be Read, the 20-year-old Devonian, who is in his second season at Nottinghamshire. Those who have followed his early progress say he has good hands, and the unbeaten 160 he made against Warwickshire two weeks ago suggests his batting is also coming on.

Paul Nixon, the sturdy Cumbrian who plays for Leicestershire, is Read's main rival for the gloves. Nixon has a career average of 31, five runs superior to Warren Hegg, who toured with England last winter and who is, however slightly, the better wicketkeeper. If Nixon never plays a Test, he will be a bit unlucky but this is the time to go with a younger man, in the hope that he blossoms.

Caddick is a different matter altogether. If talent was the only qualification he would never be left out of the team. It isn't, and - no squealing, please, from Taunton - it never was. He has let down England so often in the past when they needed his wickets that he can no longer be taken on trust. Better to forget him and look towards a generation of fresher men.

It is not necessarily, as has been intimated, Caddick's lack of stomach for the fight. Michael Atherton thought it was a technical hitch, that his action went to pieces when batsmen started to get after him. Whatever it is, the memory of that Test match in Trinidad last year, when Caddick let his team down so badly, cannot easily be forgotten.

In the absence of Darren Gough, who may also miss the Lord's Test, Alan Mullally and Alex Tudor will open the bowling. Dean Headley, a real trier who bowled superbly in Australia, should be in the party, irrespective of his indifferent early season form, and Chris Silverwood, the Yorkshire seamer, should be recalled.

Silverwood, 24, has played only one Test to date, in Bulawayo three years ago, and deserves another go for his lively form in the opening weeks of the season. He has gained an additional yard of pace and is, like Headley, a reliable character.

Another bowler who deserves a mention is Ed Giddins of Warwickshire, but his number, apparently, is up. A selector has told him - and it must be presumed he was speaking for them all - that he will never play Test cricket. So, when the 'top table' said yesterday that the slate was clean for everybody, at least one man may tell a different tale.

Two final selections must be made; one old, one new. Phil Tufnell should be recalled for variety, albeit without the investment of too many hopes, and Andrew Flintoff should have the chance to bat at No 6. Should he not have made a strong case after two Tests, a door may open for Gavin Hamilton.

Suggested England XII: *N Hussain, M A Butcher, M P Vaughan, G P Thorpe, M R Ramprakash, A Flintoff, -C M W Read, A J Tudor, D W Headley, A D Mullally, C E W Silverwood, P C R Tufnell.

Source :: The Electronic Telegraph