Lancashire: Pace ace goes head to head for Test recall (10 Jun 1998)

10 June 1998

Pace ace goes head to head for Test recall

Andy Wilson

Peter Martin goes head to head with Andy Caddick at Old Trafford tomorrow in the battle for a Second Test call-up, writes Andy Wilson.

The two seamers were on the outer when England named their team for the opening Test against South Africa, leapfrogged by Darren Gough and Dominic Cork.

But Gough's latest injury blow has handed both of them fresh hope, with the squad for the Lord's Test to be named on Sunday.

Kent's Dean Headley must be favourite to come into the team, but at least a squad place is up for grabs. And an eyecatching performance on the first three days of the Old Trafford Championship match would give the selectors extra food for thought.

Martin has made a solid start to the season after a bitterly disappointing winter, with 15 wickets at 24 from Lancashire's first five Championship matches.

He was a member of the England team which beat Australia at The Oval in the last Test last summer, but left out of the West Indies touring team and even the A-tour to Sri Lanka.

He did go to Sharjah before Christmas, but the selectors decided the pitches wouldn't suit him and he never got a game.

Caddick did make it to the West Indies, and was a regular for the Tests. But he remains the enigma of English cricket, producing a wonderful performance one game and an infuriating one the next - as Mike Atherton, who returns from Test duty to face him tomorrow, would testify.

But Dermot Reeve, Caddick's coach at Somerset, reckons the New Zealand born paceman has a new approach this summer - and urges England to take another look.

"He has worked on his action and made a slight change, which means he is getting closer to the stumps," said the former Warwickshire skipper, who moved south west as Somerset's coach last year.

"As a result he is more likely to get people bowled and lbw, as well as all the caught behinds and slip catches he has always got with his extra bounce."

Of Caddick's Test prospects, Reeve says: "You can't get seven seam bowlers into four places. But with Gough being injured he has to be in the reckoning to come in."

Reeve was at Headingley yesterday, sharing a commentary box for the Benson and Hedges Cup semi-final between Yorkshire and Essex with Lancashire's Neil Fairbrother.

Fairbrother expects to be fit for the Somerset game despite being forced to bat with a runner during the AXA League victory at Northampton last Sunday, while Wasim Akram and John Crawley are both hoping to recover from shoulder injuries and illness respectively.

Lancashire have a double motivation. They need a win to start climbing the Championship table after slipping into the bottom five following their draw in Northampton. And revenge will also be in the air after a terrible performance against Somerset at Taunton last year.

They were beaten by seven wickets after being bowled out for 88 in 22.1 overs before lunch on the first day - even though Mike Watkinson had won the toss and chosen to bat!

Source :: Lancashire Evening Telegraph (https://www.reednews.co.uk/let/)