Former Somerset skipper Peter Roebuck has predicted that Matt Bulbeck will be playing for England by the time that the next Ashes series takes place.

Writing in the Sunday Times this morning, Roebuck who is based in Australia says that Bulbeck has `the pride needed' to play for his country against the old enemy when they next lock horns.

Peter Roebuck's comments will come as a real fillip to the Taunton born left armer who made an impressive comeback to the first class scene in 2002 after being dogged by injury for the last couple of seasons.

During this summer he played in fifteen championship matches during which he bowled 312 overs and took 53 wickets, as well as making a number of valuable contributions with the bat.

Near the start of the 2002 season many pundits were predicting that Matt Bulbeck would be given a place on the England Academy in Adelaide this winter, and he did in fact make the short list of twenty, but in the end did not make the final party.

`Bully' was however philosophical about the situation when I spoke to him recently and told me that he feels his best is yet to come, and he would rather wait until he was at his peak.

The twenty three year old is already back in training for the 2003 season and along with his Somerset bowling colleague Richard Johnson is looking at developing his batting as well as his bowling during the closed season.

© SOMERSET