England: Top names sweat on World Cup selection (24 February 1999)

24 February 1999

England: Top names sweat on World Cup selection

By Christopher Martin-Jenkins

AFTER all the experiments, the selectors were making decisions yesterday on the players who will represent England in May and June in the World Cup.

Some of the country's most familiar players, among them Graham Thorpe, Mike Atherton and Angus Fraser, will be having an anxious 48 hours before the first squad of 19 men is announced on Friday.

David Graveney, Graham Gooch and Alec Stewart met at Lord's to choose the players for a competition which is of greater long-term importance for the home nation than for any of the other 11 finalists.

David Lloyd, not officially a selector but closely involved as coach in what might be his last major challenge in his present role, was also present to have his say. They had already received the opinions of the fourth selector, Mike Gatting, who is managing England Under-19 in New Zealand.

The immediate task yesterday was to choose the shortlist of 19 which, for the benefit of the tournament planners, has to be announced by all the competing nations by the end of the month.

There is a further month then for each party to be shaved to only 15 players, taking into consideration such potentially crucial factors as what the weather, and therefore the pitches, might be like in early summer, whether it is safe to have only one wicketkeeper and which injury-prone players should be risked.

The selectors were checking yesterday whether, despite the closing date of March 31, it would be possible to change any players who might become injured in the competition in Sharjah in early April.

Their understanding is that this would be possible, in which case Thorpe can expect to be chosen in the 19 and to go to the Persian Gulf to try to prove his fitness in the triangular tournament with India and Pakistan.

After that, once a player is nominated, he may be replaced only if a new and serious injury occurs.

Thorpe believes that his back is strong enough again to withstand all that the World Cup might demand of him. If England should reach the final he would have to last 10 games and he is such a key member of the one-day and Test sides that the selectors have been questioning whether to risk picking him.

The case against is that he might break down again in the middle of the competition - he lasted only one Test in Australia having apparently fully recovered from surgery to remove a spur on a disc last summer - and that it is more important in the long run for Thorpe and England that he should not rush his return.

To my mind that would be a mistake. What stood out in the end in Australia when the one-day series had finally run its elongated course was that Australia had more match-winners than England.

Thorpe averages 40 in one-day internationals and so much is at stake in the World Cup that it is worth the gamble of choosing him, even with Neil Fairbrother taking his notoriously suspect hamstrings into the same tournament.

Events in Australia enhanced the prospects of neither Fraser nor Atherton but it had always been the long-term idea in the minds of at least some of the selectors that they should be included in the 15 to allow for the probability of some seaming pitches.

Atherton's one-day record in England is excellent and having had a rest since January, he is full of beans. Likewise Fraser, the only regular England bowler to have an economy rate of fewer than four an over.

The other difficult choices yesterday were those concerning the second wicketkeeper - there has to be a reserve, probably either John Crawley or Mark Alleyne - and the all-rounders, of whom only Mark Ealham is a certainty.

Vince Wells, however, took his chance well in Australia and has climbed ahead of Alleyne, the Hollioakes, Dominic Cork, Chris Lewis and Matthew Fleming. That leaves either Gavin Hamilton or a revived Andrew Flintoff, who might have the makings of a World Cup hero.

MY SUGGESTED 15: Knight, Atherton, Wells, Hick, * - Stewart, Thorpe, Fairbrother, Flintoff, Ealham, Croft, Austin, Gough, Mullally, Fraser, Crawley. Reserves: Martin, Giles, A Brown, Adams.

Source :: Electronic Telegraph (https://www.telegraph.co.uk)