Hick's Test career in doubt again

LONDON - England batsman Graeme Hick today paid the price for his failing bat when he was dropped by selectors from the 12-man squad of contracted players to play Australia in the Ashes series.

Hick, once hailed as England's great hope against Australia, was pruned from the list after an unimpressive year in which he scored only one century in 11 Tests.

All-rounder Andrew Flintoff was also cut, the victim of a back complaint that has stopped him bowling several times, most recently when he was sent home from Pakistan.

But chairman of selectors Dave Graveney denied that the move spelled the end of Hick's Test career, putting his omission down to a shift towards bowlers in the squad.

"Last year we had seven specialist batsmen, this year we've got six," Graveney told reporters.

"There has been the experience in the last couple of years of actually going into Test matches with seven batsmen so that place is very much up for grabs.

"I'm not sitting here saying Graeme Hick and Mark Ramprakash will not play, but obviously they will be in a bunch of players which will include younger players and they will all be competing for that spot, should we go that way."

However, the announcement leaves a major question mark over Hick's international future.

The 34-year-old, who scored his first century at the age of six and was averaging 185 as a 13-year-old schoolboy in Zimbabwe, has never lived up to his promise at the international level, scoring just six centuries in his 65 Tests at an average of 31.32.

When Australia toured in 1993, he scored 187 against them for Worcestershire but was dropped by England after the second Test.

Hick and Flintoff, 23, were dropped for batsman Michael Vaughan, 26, and all-rounder Dominic Cork, 29, although Cork must pass a fitness test after injuring his back in Pakistan.

Promising paceman Matthew Hoggard, 24, also won a contract over spinner Robert Croft, with the home pitches expected to be seamer-friendly.

ENGLAND squad: Nasser Hussain (Essex, captain), Michael Atherton (Lancashire), Andrew Caddick (Somerset), Dominic Cork (Derbyshire), Ashley Giles (Warwickshire), Darren Gough (Yorkshire), Matthew Hoggard (Yorkshire), Alec Stewart (Surrey), Graham Thorpe (Surrey), Marcus Trescothick (Somerset), Michael Vaughan (Yorkshire), Craig White (Yorkshire).