THE only thing missing from the recent Acfield report into the selection and management of the England team was any advice on how to make silk purses out of sows' ears. When it comes to choosing their bowlers this, unfortunately, is what England selection committees, whoever they comprise, are obliged at present to do. There will, therefore, be some disagreement when Ray Illingworth sits down for the last time as chairman at Lord's today.
Only the choice of the six front-line batsmen will be straightforward when he joins Mike Atherton, David Lloyd, David Graveney and Graham Gooch to debate the England teams to tour Zimbabwe and New Zealand from late November to early March and the A tour to Australia from October to December.
The annual meeting of the selectors just before or, as in this case, just after the NatWest final is in many ways the toughest they face. They know how much joy and misery they have it in their power to dispense, how many are the winter plans which hang on marginal decisions between one fast bowler and another.
They often get it wrong. Two winters ago Chris Lewis and Angus Fraser finished second and third in the Test bowling averages in Australia without having been chosen for the tour. Of last year's bowlers in South Africa - Fraser, Dominic Cork, Peter Martin, Mark Ilott, Devon Malcolm, Darren Gough, Mike Watkinson and Richard Illingworth - only two are certain to be announced tomorrow and in the case of Cork this will only be the result of a late change to the plan to leave him at home for the first leg of the tour.
The first idea was for him to miss the flat pitches at Bulawayo and Harare in order to recharge his batteries and to build up the strength in his legs needed to carry suspect knees and heavy work. Preparation for the Ashes series at home would then begin with the tour of New Zealand which begins early in the new year. The thinking now is that he should work under the supervision of the physiotherapist, Wayne Morton, during the early stages of the tour, doing sufficient work to justify his leading the attack in the two Test matches, before and after Christmas.
Cork is now in 17th place in the Coopers and Lybrand Test ratings, and it is significant, perhaps, that the only other England bowler in the top 20 (although Heath Streak, of Zimbabwe, is third, two places ahead of Wasim Akram and Mushtaq Ahmed) is Angus Fraser. No one in a season when England have employed 26 players has made even the initial impact of a Cork or a Gough, neither of whom has sustained his bright start, and the selectors should surely be considering Fraser (46 championship wickets) more seriously than they are.
Given his preceived lack of penetration, the most accurate English fast-medium bowler is Martin, so he would get a place in my party, especially as the ball swings in Zimbabwe's warmth and humidity, along with Cork, Gough, Alan Mullally and Mark Ealham.
Only 15 players are to be taken, which means, unfortunately, no place for Andrew Caddick or Dean Headley. Last year's attempt to promote a young bowler failed when Richard Johnson, of Middlesex, discovered he had a stress fracture of the back and it may be a suspicion that Caddick is not truly fit that will prevent him returning to his native New Zealand.
Ealham or Martin is also likely to be unlucky in practice because the selectors seem determined to pick one young fast bowler: either Andrew Harris, of Derbyshire, or, more likely, Chris Silverwood of Yorkshire. Either would be a speculative choice and there would be more sense and justice, I think, in giving Glen Chapple a chance.
Lewis burned his boats at the Oval, but Headley, who made such a success of his A tour to South Africa, would be unlucky if he missed the chance at a higher level after two inconsequential one-day internationals. It would be a gross injustice for his Kent colleague Ealham not to be chosen, given his 43 championshp wickets at 18 each. He always swings the ball and is the only contending all-rounder Ronnie Irani and Adam Hollioake are the others - who could play in a Test match as the third seamer, to allow for two spinners.
Ealham's batting seems to have been condemned largely on the basis of one inelegant prod at Lord's when Mushtaq Ahmed bowled him around his legs. Only John Crawley played Mushtaq convincingly, however, and both Zimbabwe and New Zealand may have a leg-spinner in their Test team. If this tour is to advance England's chances of defeating Australia it is essential that progress is made in the art of batting against wrist-spin and also that, if possible, the all-rounder quandry should be settled.
It is partly because Irani's qualities and limitations are the most obvious of the three that I would send him to Australia with the A team and choose Ealham and Hollioake, whose batting has a look of genuine class. The selectors will probably ask Hollioake to captain the A team in Australia, but Jason Gallian's leadership credentials are equally sound and Hollioake is ready for Test cricket.
Assuming Atherton, Stewart, Hussain, Thorpe, Crawley and Knight to be the batting certainties, Russell the specialist wicketkeeper and Croft the off-spinner, this leaves room for debate only on the other spinner.
Sometimes issues resolve themselves and that of Phil Tufnell's right to return as the best of the English spinners is one such. His behaviour is deemed now to be mature - not just because of his own contention that he has become a man who ``does the shopping and goes to bed early''. It is widely accepted he is the best of the left-arm spinners and Croft's emergence gives the hope that in future Tufnell may be allowed a more attacking role than he was during his last spell in the national side.
One could pick not just an A team but a B team too with equal potential, but the 15 below fulfil the purpose of sending a youthful side with genuine pretensions to be playing for England in the next two or three years:
Christopher Martin-Jenkins's senior team: Atherton (capt), Stewart, Hussain (vice-capt), Thorpe, Crawley, Knight, Hollioake, Ealham, Russell, Croft, Tufnell, Cork, Gough, Martin, Mullally.
A team: Gallian (capt), M Butcher, Walker, Lathwell, Adams, Irani, Warren, R Rollins, Giles, Solanki, Headley, Lewry, Silverwood, Harris, Chapple.