Date-stamped : 18 May96 - 02:21 16 May 1996 England spoilt for choice in Texaco Trophy Christopher Martin-Jenkins THOSE finally entrusted with selecting England sides this season will have more than earned their #55 a day`s watching fee, plus expenses, if they emerge on Sunday with a Texaco Trophy squad to satisfy everyone. They have three more days of cham- pionship cricket on which to judge, starting today. There have seldom been so many genuine candidates and, as always, they first have to determine a fundamental strategy based on whether these selections are part of a summer`s campaign, or an attempt merely to choose one-day specialists. What has happened too often in the past is that the policy has been ambiguous. "We don`t really think so and so is a Test player but we`ll play him in the one-dayers and see how he gets on." So-and-so does quite well and up he pops in the team for the first Test a fortnight or so later. By the end of the season they are still not quite sure if he is a Test player. Better for the selectors to have a settled idea of the 12 players they want for the first Test against India at Edgbaston, starting on June 6, and to treat the three games at the Oval, Headingley and Old Trafford next week as a separate entity. The only position which might best be settled by using these games as a sort of eliminator for a place in the side for the first Test is the perennial problem place at No 5. At Edgbas- ton, if there is any possibility of a repeat of last year`s over-sporty surface, there is a good case for an all-rounder rather than a specialist batsman. This would mean that John Crawley and Nasser Hussain would have to vie directly for the No 3 place with Robin Smith and Alec Stewart, rather than one of them going in at six. I take Atherton, Knight, Thorpe and Hick to be certain occupants of the other four batting places, Russell to be the wicketkeeper and Cork, Fraser and, assuming his fitness, Salisbury, to be bowling certainties. Neither Crawley nor Hussain has had much of a season so far and an extra championship match would do each of them more good than a return to England colours in the helter- skelter atmosphere of a 50-over international. The choice between them and the two senior players whose careers have fal- tered - Stewart and Smith - will have to be made, to some ex- tent, on current form. The latter two are in a cricketing middle-age which may be a little too affluent for their own good: the odds are that neither will be chosen. Accepting the need to move on also means leaving out Dermot Reeve, whose last season this probably is, for the one-day internationals, despite his obvious case for inclusion. There are eight other all-rounders who have at least a debatable case to bat at six at Edgbaston: White, Irani, Hollioake, Chris Lewis, Ealham, Neil Smith, Croft and Watkinson. The last three may be eliminated for the time being on the assumption that it will be a seam bowler who will be needed at Birmingham. By this logic, therefore, the other five would all be in a `squad` of 15 for the Texaco games, each of them being guaranteed two matches. They are, to a man, adaptable cricketers, fine fielders and capable of significant contributions with bat and ball, except, perhaps against the very highest class of opposition. One would hope to learn from these games, for example, how Ronnie Irani would look when bowling against Sachin Tendulkar, or Adam Hollioake when batting against Javagal Srinath or Anil Kumble. Fifteen players would be excessive, of course, in most seasons, but this is an exceptional time, with four opponents to be played in the next 10 months. The objective is to establish a settled and successful team by the time that the Australians arrive here next May. Clearly, winning is important in every match England play and for this reason any temptation to surround Mike Atherton with an entirely experimental Texaco team will have to be resisted. There have to be men of experience in each department around which young and ambitious players may safely be given their chance: therefore Atherton, Hick, Thorpe, Cork, Martin, Gough and Illingworth, who all came through the trauma of the World Cup more or less unscathed, may form the one-day nucleus. These seven, plus the five all-rounders, leaves room in the squad for two young specialist batsmen, each of whom should also have two games with one established batsman resting, and for the wicketkeeper. It would be wise to keep Knight for the Test matches, not least because the form of Alistair Brown has virtually demanded that he be given his chance to play for England for the first time next week as the aggressive opener which the rules - nine men inside the circle for the first 15 overs - require. The other obvious choice, I believe, is Andrew Symonds. It goes against the grain of an Englishman to employ yet another man who to some extent has used county cricket as a mercenary, but Symonds`s youth and upbringing were not matters under his control. His recent confusion about his identity is only human and, in a way, engagingly honest. He stands out as a brilli- ant batting talent whose cricketing education in Australia has been greatly to his advantage. If chosen on Sunday he would play for England and that would be an end to the matter. It is, however, a big `if` in view of the reservations expressed yesterday by one of the selectors, Graham Gooch. Gooch said: "To me it is not good enough just to say I want to play cricket for a country, they have to make a commitment to that country, to live in it." Assuming that Symonds`s team-mate, Jack Russell, continues as the Test wicketkeeper, Stewart would be the obvious choice for the one-day games. Given the need for forward-planning, however, Russell Warren`s flair as a batsman and his adequacy as a wicketkeeper standing back, are worth looking at. The flexible team of 15 for the Texaco Trophy would therefore be: Atherton, Brown, Hick, Thorpe, Symonds, Warren, Hollioake, Irani, White, Ealham, Lewis, Cork, Illingworth, Gough, Martin. Source :: Electronic Telegraph (http.//www.telegraph.co.uk) Contributed by Shash (shs2@*.cwru.edu)