Tufnell may tour India again

By Ted Corbett

LONDON, AUG. 21. Phil Tufnell, the slow left-arm spin bowler, has a ``definite chance'' of being selected for the tour party to India and New Zealand according to David Graveney, the England chairman of selectors.

Tufnell has been named in the England 14 for the final Test against Australia at the Oval which begins on Thursday. Doubts about the future of Ashley Giles, Tufnell's spin rival, mean the selectors are forced to look again at the man who has caused them so many headaches in the past.

Tufnell bowled out the West Indies at the Oval in 1991 and won the game against Australia there in 1997 with brilliant spells of bowling and it is reasonable to expect him to have the Aussies worried again, particularly as there were signs of battle fatigue on the final day at Leeds and as they have a reputation for losing their way in the final match of a series, especially if they are set to make a low score.

Tufnell, who has sparked controversy throughout his career, made a colourful trip to India with the last England party in 1993, when he was fined and censured after shouting at the England wicket-keeper Richard Blakey, having a row with his captain John Emburey and defiantly kicking his hat along the ground during a match at Vishakhapatnam.

As the tour reached its climax - England, without both David Gower and Jack Russell, lost the Test series 3-0 - Tufnell in a much-quoted statement, insisted: ``Done the poverty, done the elephants; time to go home.'' So it may not be the selectors who make the final choice.

At this moment they are still wondering whether Michael Atherton will announce his retirement in his Sunday newspaper column this week-end and whether both Alec Stewart and Darren Gough will ask if they can go to New Zealand but not to India. Andrew Caddick, who has sought medical advice after saying he feels drained of energy, will be a father by the time the party set out in November but says he intends to go.

So even as England was pulling off its astonishing victory against Australia at Leeds on Monday evening, the junior selector Geoff Miller was travelling round the country in an attempt to find a wicket-keeper qualified to fill any part of Stewart's many layered boots and there are questions about who will open the batting with Marcus Trescothick if Atherton steps down as expected. The squad will be announced on August 28.

One of the most serious problems seems to be of the selectors' own making. Gough and Caddick have been the established pair since the South African tour which ended 18 months ago but who is the best back-up paceman. Craig White held the post, to the exclusion of Matthew Hoggard and Alex Tudor in the winter, but he has had a lapse in form although it is still expected that he will be in the 15-strong squad for the first part of the Indian trip in which three Tests will be played.

These Tests will finish in time for the players to return to England for Christmas but they will go back for five one-day internationals in January and on to New Zealand for five one- dayers and three Tests finishing in April.

The party will probably need two more pace bowlers from a list that grows longer by the Test. So far Ryan Sidebottom and Chris Silverwood of Yorkshire, Cork, Richard Johnson of Somerset and Tudor have been called up this summer and for the fifth Test the selectors have added James Ormond, a burly, hard- working fast bowler from the successful Leicestershire team. Sentimental attempts to write Angus Fraser and Martin Bicknell, both in their middle-30s, back into the side have failed but, as the selectors have shown by reverting to Tufnell, now 35, it is an old English custom to look back when the difficulties get toughest.

The team for the fifth Test (from): Nasser Hussain (captain), Michael Atherton, Marcus Trescothick, Mark Butcher, Mark Ramprakash, Usman Afzaal, Alec Stewart, Alex Tudor, Andrew Caddick, Darren Gough, Robert Croft, Phil Tufnell, James Ormond and Richard Johnson.

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