Last-minute selection headaches for West Indies & England

With the weather as it has been, drearily and drizzly, both teams for this 1st Cornhill Test match featuring the West Indies and England have struggled somewhat to come up with combinations.

England's effort has already verged on the comical, as they selected 14 players originally, but only eleven of those fourteen seem ready to play. It is comical because Chris Scofield, the leg spinner, Mark Ealham, the medium-paced bowling all-rounder, and Steve Harmison, the fast bowler, have already been released from the squad, fully 36-48 hours before the game actually gets going. One wonders why they were called up in the first place, having been originally selected only 24 hours before being released.

To add fuel to the worrying fire, Mark Ramprakash, who would have opened England's batting with Mike Atherton, woke up, according to captain Nasser Hussain, on the penultimate day before the Test with a neck-ache, either from stress (fast bowler induced?) or from sleeping badly. It is reported that he has had the complaint in the past, so no-one should worry.

In the meantime, though, Yorkshire's opener, Michael Vaughan, has been invited down to Edgbaston "just in case..."

Tremendous stuff, just before a Test match, do you not think?

The West Indies cricket team is not very much better, when comparisons are made. While they have no problems with the fast bowling situation, although their fifth fast bowler in the pecking order, Nixon McLean, is presently bowling better than the 4th in that order, Franklyn Rose, they have problems with the rest of the combination, all because Adrian Griffith, the opener, is not playing well and another left-hander, Brian Lara, must play.

The West Indies had a massive question: Who will open with Sherwin Campbell?. Lara had done it in the past, in one of his earlier Tests, but could not be asked to do it now. Ramnaresh Sarwan looked so good in the Caribbean, but has eventually been sacrificed for this Test to accommodate Lara. The final option could have even been to ask either captain Jimmy Adams or wicketkeeper Ridley Jacobs to open with Campbell, both of whom will be batting badly out of position if that were to happen. In the end, sense prevailed, as Chris Gayle, who has not played much yet, is given the role of the opener with Campbell. I suppose that one will use horses for courses.

How the pletora of left-handers; the selected West Indies has seven in Chris Gayle, Wavell Hinds, Brian Lara, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Jimmy Adams, Ridley Jacobs and Curtly Ambrose; will cope with the preferred off-spin of Robert Croft will be entertaining, at least

With so much rain falling on the day before the Test, much lastminute preparation was eliminated. Both teams now have headaches. The first day, at least, of this 1st Test, could be more of exploration for both teams than really putting things in place to win.

Even with the surroundings so damp from the rain, let the fireworks begin.