Manou covers bases for England

Graham Manou, the South Australia wicketkeeper, will spend part of the winter in England even if he misses a spot in the Ashes squad. Manou is one of a group of glovemen, including Matthew Wade and Chris Hartley, who performed strongly towards the end of last season as they fought for the right to be Brad Haddin's understudy.

Luke Ronchi had held that role, but he was dropped by Western Australia during the summer and there was strong competition for his spot. The Test squad for England will be named before Australia's camp in Queensland on May 24.

Wade led the first-class dismissals in 2008-09 with 57, three ahead of Hartley and well in front of Tim Paine (42), another candidate, and Manou (33). However, Manou was the most productive batsman with 647 runs at 46.21 while Wade made 545 at 49.54 and Hartley 524 at 34.93.

"If the selections don't go my way, processes are being put into place by myself and my management company to get me over there," Manou told AAP. "Ideally county cricket would be fantastic, but those opportunities are very limited, especially for a wicketkeeper. There's been talk about some second XI cricket and then any cricket I can get my hands on while I'm over there."

Manou said he wanted to be in England in case something happened to Haddin and there was an opening in the Test team. "You'd kick yourself if you weren't there," he said.