England Squad for 1st Cornhill Test v West Indies

England today named a 14-man squad for next week's 1st Cornhill Test Match against West Indies at Edgbaston. (June 15-19). The Glamorgan off-spinner Robert Croft and the Kent all-rounder Mark Ealham are added to the 12 chosen for the 2nd Cornhill Test against Zimbabwe.

Two players will be released from the squad by Tuesday night ahead of the next round of PPP healthcare County Championship matches starting on Wednesday.

The Chairman of Selectors, David Graveney, said: "We have chosen 14 players for this Test Match because we want to consider all the options available to us.

"Robert Croft comes into the equation because we may need an off-spinner against a side with six left-handed batsmen in their top eight.

"Robert has been chosen not just because of his performance against the West Indies in last week's tour match, but also because he has bowled well for Glamorgan this summer and rediscovered the attributes that served him well when he first played Test cricket for England.

"Mark Ealham can provide more variation to our bowling attack as a swing bowler, but our final choice of line-up will depend on our assessment of the pitch and the weather conditions.

"Of the contracted players, we took a view that Craig White was not ready to be considered for this Test Match as he has not yet played for Yorkshire since recovering from illness.

"We were pleased to see Michael Vaughan score runs for Yorkshire this week and he is very much in consideration for the future. But he has missed a month through injury and at this stage we feel he needs to play more cricket before he can be considered for England again."

Commenting on his selection, Robert Croft said: "I felt during the last six weeks of last season that I was bowling as well as I ever had and it's carried on from there this season.

"I've had plenty of bowling this summer, feel in good form and hopefully that will put me in good stead for next week's match if selected. I've only played one Test against the West Indies before in Guyana in 1998 - but I did get six wickets in the match including Brian Lara!"

England Squad                          D.O.B   Tests
Nasser Hussain (Captain) (Essex)      28.03.68   49
Michael Atherton (Lancashire)         23.03.68   97
Andrew Caddick (Somerset)             21.11.68   32
Robert Croft *(Glamorgan)             25.05.70   15
Mark Ealham* (Kent)                   27.08.69    8
Andrew Flintoff (Lancashire)          06.12.77    8
Ed Giddins* (Warwickshire)            20.07.71    3
Darren Gough (Yorkshire)              18.09.70   38
Stephen Harmison*(Durham)             23.10.78    0
Graeme Hick (Worcestershire)          23.05.66   56
Nick Knight* (Warwickshire)           28.11.69   14
Mark Ramprakash (Middlesex)           05.09.69   40
Chris Schofield (Lancashire)          06.10.78    2
Alec Stewart (Surrey)                 08.04.63   97
* denotes non-contracted player