NO other country could whistle up 40 cricketers of such talent and first-class experience as England's selectors can tomorrow. Which is just as well, because England have to send a party of 14 to Sharjah in December, another of 16 to the West Indies, and a third of 15 on the 'A' tour to Kenya and Sri Lanka. Not to mention the Youth World Cup and Under-19 tour to South Africa.
But before you start covering envelopes with surnames and moving players around like chess pieces - Brown A to Sharjah, Brown D to the West Indies for the five internationals in April after the Test series - you have to work out the priorities. Inconsiderable tournament though it may sound, the selectors want to win Sharjah. England's one-day cricket overseas has been a joke - the record is 3.5-15.5 against Test countries in the last two years - so beating India and Pakistan would make the right start to the World Cup build-up, while defeating West Indies would reinforce England's best tendency: that while they usually reserve their worst for Australia and Pakistan, they turn on their best for West Indies.
On the other hand, it would be senseless to exhaust the Test players any more than they will be in 1998, with its crippling schedule of a West Indies tour followed by a six-Test domestic summer and an autumn departure to Australia. In 1994 this same schedule was so literally crippling that England needed 22 players to complete their Australian tour. In 1990 all four of England's main pace bowlers were broken, temporarily or permanently.
If you happen to think that when England's administrators were drawing up next year's itinerary they were a bail or two short of a full set of stumps, you might be correct, but nothing can be done now except lighten the one-day load on the Test players. And this is where England are so blessed as well as cursed, in having plenty of one-day players who can maintain strike-rates of 120 per cent, field athletically and fire in the odd dot-ball.
Adam Hollioake is the only person who is needed to go to Sharjah for one-day cricket and to the West Indies for the Test series. Some might say he is not up to the latter, after failing in three of his four Test innings against Australia, but that would be to forget his bowling. Against West Indian batsmen keen to hit to and over short boundaries - and after being tied down, we hope, by three sound seamers and an accurate finger-spinner - Hollioake's brand of medium pace could well be provocative and effective.
In choosing the right number of batsmen in the West Indies party, some consideration has to be given to the large gap of at least 10 days between each Test, save for the fourth and fifth which are dreaded back-to-backers. Batsmen can go a week between Tests without playing a match, provided they have good nets available. But neither circumstance applies.
The problem was best illustrated on England's last tour by Mike Atherton and Alec Stewart, the two biggest run-scorers by far, who went 11 days without a proper bat before the second Test when they rested from the warm-up game to give the two spare batsmen a go. Atherton came up with his most commanding Test innings, but in the first half-hour he was all at sea, way behind the pace, like Stewart, who did not survive. So the selectors this time may think that seven batsmen are enough. But the answer should be to allow for one major injury - such as Mike Gatting suffered in 1985-86 and Graham Gooch in 1989-90 - and take eight, but not worry about giving the reserves a fair go between Tests. The unsentimental Australians did not bother about Michael Slater and Justin Langer.
England will take five seamers, preferably tall ones to make use of the bounce, once steep, now uneven. A left-armer among them would be useful to create rough outside the right-handed batsman's off stump, but the most promising that England have, Paul Hutchison, though tall and sharp and topping the first-class averages, is only 20; and the West Indian middle order is left-handed except for Carl Hooper. If the surprise last winter was the young Chris Silverwood, this time it may be Ashley Cowan of Essex or, less probably, the veteran Angus Fraser, who has the fine record in the West Indies of 27 wickets at 22 each.
The 'A' tour has been timed so that replacements will be ready if injuries are suffered by England's bowlers in the West Indies, whether from hard grounds - as in the case of Devon Malcolm's knee last time - or while batting, as with Fraser's finger. The 'A' party will leave on December 30 and play three one-day games and one three-day game in Kenya, whose growing band of quick bowlers can well replicate those of West Indies.
From Kenya the aspirants move on to Sri Lanka for two months of matches which have yet to be finalised. Aside from potential Test replacements, like Nick Knight or Ashley Giles, the 'A' party will be a young one. As England have played only four Tests in Asia in 10 years, somebody must be ready for the next in 2000 in Pakistan.
To encourage the youth, the selectors might fast-track the only leg spinner of notable promise in the country, Chris Schofield, and could well take on the 'A' tour a wicketkeeper who has also not played a first-class match. Chris Read went to Pakistan with the Under 19s last winter as the reserve to David Nash but quickly overtook him and kept going in the summer 'Tests' against Zimbabwe. ``He is very athletic,'' said the under 19s selector Graham Saville, ``which is useful as kids sometimes fire one down the leg-side and he is good standing up to spinners.'' Nash is a batsman who can keep, while Read could become skilled enough to do both at the highest level.
One other consideration is that England need to keep some of their Sharjah players ready for the five one-day internationals in April against West Indies that follow the Test series, so they can lighten the load on the Test players and give them their only break before the South Africans arrive in England. But a team cannot be fixed seven months in advance; and the arrangements must be made diplomatically, unlike in South Africa two winters ago when half a dozen of the Test players were told at short notice they weren't wanted for the internationals and put on a plane in quasi-disgrace.
This time the core of Test players should be told before the tour that they will probably, but not definitely, be rested from the one-day series; and allowed to stay on at the board's expense for 10 days if they should want, so that all the players can return together. The one-day players, whether they have wintered on the 'A' tour or in club cricket in South Africa and Australia, can then do their part in fulfilling the most arduous year ever to have confronted English cricket.
The Winter Parties
England (poss): *M A Atherton, N Hussain, -A J Stewart, M A Butcher, G P Thorpe, M R Ramprakash, J P Crawley, A J Hollioake, -R C Russell, R D B Croft, P C R Tufnell, D Gough, A R Caddick, D W Headley, D G Cork, A R C Fraser or A P Cowan.
Scyld Berry's Sharjah party: *A J Hollioake, N V Knight, A D Brown, C J Adams, D L Hemp, -M P Speight, N M K Smith, A F Giles, R C Irani, D R Brown, M V Fleming, B C Hollioake, M A Ealham, C E W Silverwood.
Scyld Berry's A team party: *N V Knight, S P James, D L Maddy, M P Dowman, I J Sutcliffe, O A Shah, D J G Sales, V S Solanki, A F Giles, B C Hollioake, P M Hutchison, J Ormond, D A Cosker, -D J Nash, -C Read.