Selectorial issues

I can only agree with Tony Cozier that the West Indies selectors have got a couple of big calls entirely wrong in leaving out Lendl Simmons and Darren Sammy from their latest touring party while, amongst others, turning to Runako Morton. There was a time when Courtney Walsh wrote in his autobiography that the West Indies knew they only had to win the first Test match of a series against England and they would then play a progressively weaker England side each match until they played the England 2nd XI by the end of the series. That was down to the desperation of the England selectors to try anyone who could hold a bat or bowl a ball, in the absence of success with the best XI. Thankfully times have changed in England, but unfortunately things seem to have gone full circle and it's the West Indies who are now troubled by idiotic selections.

The England selectors have to focus on the 16 man training squad they are naming today. Vaughan's name is always mentioned, but his form has been poor and he's been troubled by his knee again so, much as the Aussies would hate to see him come out to face him, you can't pick him on that basis alone. Harmison will rejoin the squad on the back of a couple of good recent performances, allowing the England captain and management to see how he's bowling close up. And I wonder if they'll take the chance to bring Foster into the squad following his brilliant keeping in the Twenty20, so the squad could look like this:

Strauss, Cook, Bopara, Pietersen, Collingwood, Bell, Prior, Flintoff, Broad, Swann, Foster, Sidebottom, Anderson, Onions, Panesar, Harmison.

But, to be honest, I think they'll go with the squad that Cricinfo suggest, with Rashid in and Foster left out again.