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Paul Newman reveals it is so far, so good for injured England pair on their road to fitness

Michael Atherton and Graham Thorpe, the two most vulnerable members of England's World Cup party, have cleared the first hurdle in their attempt to prove their fitness in time for the opening match on May 14.

The pair, who have suffered with serious back complaints, were selected for the final 15 on the understanding they would undergo a fierce examination of their readiness before they could be sure of their places. They spent two mornings last week working with Wayne Morton, the England physio, and underwent stamina tests and sprint work followed by agility tests involving shuttle runs and picking up balls at speed.

``Neither myself nor Thorpey felt any reactions with our backs,'' said Atherton, who missed the final Test of the Ashes tour because of a recurrence of his long-standing condition. ``It was the first time I have been able to train outside of cricket for some time and the good news for me is that I feel I can now combine fitness work and cricket with no fear of a problem.''

Atherton has now, at the request of the England hierarchy, travelled to Cape Town with Lancashire for their pre-season tour where he will continue his rehabilitation before leaving for the World Cup training camp in Lahore on March 29 and then the Sharjah tournament. The England management, in a dress-rehearsal for ECB contracts, have the right to tell any county how they should use their World Cup players in the build-up.

England have taken a gamble by picking several players with fitness worries and the added drawback is that they are unlikely to bring dynamism to the field. In addition to Atherton and Thorpe, there are concerns over Neil Fairbrother, Ian Austin and now Nick Knight. Meanwhile, Nasser Hussain and Mark Ramprakash, the two leading England batsmen on the Ashes tour and two of the best fielders in the side, have both been ignored.

David Graveney, chairman of the England selectors, is known to have been worried about both Knight's knee and his general form during the one-day series in Australia, when the Warwickshire opener failed to reproduce the form which had given him one of the best 50-over records in limited-overs history. So much so that Atherton probably owed his selection to those concerns.

Now Knight has been told he, too, must go to South Africa for the first week of Warwickshire's tour to work on his fitness while the majority of players stay at home.

Wasim Akram's proposed move into the world of cricket commentary will be put on hold until the findings of the protracted Pakistani inquiry into match-fixing allegations are made public.

Wasim, released by Lancashire at the end of last season, has been approached by Channel 4 to join the team they are putting together for their introduction to televised cricket in July, but he is one of several players who must this week answer specific allegations when he returns to Pakistan after the Asian Test Championship.

``Wasim hasn't signed his contract yet, so you can read into that what you will,'' said Mark Sharman, head of sport at Channel 4. ``Everybody here is confident these allegations will go away, but you never know.''

Yorkshire members have voted in favour of taking championship games back to Sheffield and Harrogate from next year.

A motion at the annual meeting in Huddersfield was defeated by those present but was successful on the proxy vote. The motion only urges the committee to reinstate the two grounds and this will now be discussed by the general committee. But supporters of the motion claim that the club now have to abide by the members' wishes.

The club had opposed the resolution, saying it would harm Yorkshire's finances and hamper their bid to redevelop Headingley.