England Cricket / Frank Gregan / 04 May 2009 / Leave a comment

As the England Test team deal with injuries, captaincy and coaching issues the England Lions look an energetic and talented bunch who have just thrashed the West Indies, says Frank Gregan.

The English cricketing authorities have come in for a lot of stick of late. The powers that be have had to endure the "guilt by association" accusation that was levelled at them when Sir Allen Stanford's hand was trapped in the till and Giles Clark looked as gullible as a Brit on the Algarve that has discovered three symbols the same on a timeshare scratch card!

They then had to handle the disaster that was the Pietersen and Moores spat which left the English dressing room with morale lower than a limbo dancer's buns. The English players trudged out to the middle in the Caribbean during the recent series against the West Indies looking like galley slaves heading for another day at the office!

The role of the selectors is to find a winning combination because no matter what is happening in the wings, as long as the stage performance is sound, nothing else matters. Winning is everything in sport and the selectors have to do everything in their power to put a side out there that is balanced, talented and hungry for success. And would you believe it - they've finally managed to do so!

A rampant England spanked a near full test strength West Indian side at the County Ground in Derby last week. There was an eight wicket haul for a twenty year old medium pace bowler, four wickets and a knock of 72 from a twenty one year old all rounder and five catches by our wicket keeper who also added an impressive 117 runs during his one visit to the crease.

Sadly, Chris Woakes, Adil Rashid and Tim Ambrose, the three players who produced those figures will not be involved in the first match of a two test series against the West Indies that gets underway on Wednesday at Lords because it was the England Lions who were impressive last week and not the high-earning centrally-contracted under achievers who are currently basking in the glory of a One Day Series win in the Caribbean gained with all the skill of a lottery jackpot winner!

In the best tradition of the Office's David Brent and his clichés, the selectors should now be 'thinking outside the box,' "embracing the opportunity' and 'seizing the moment'. In a nutshell, they should be putting out the same team that battered the Windies last week and saying to Strauss and crew, "you want to play in the Ashes you'll have to wait until this team produces the kind of form that you lot have been showing for the better part of a year!"

It won't happen of course and there is every chance that England will win this series, not because they are any good but because the Windies look to be more punch drunk than Ricky Hatton! Their preparation for this series has been awful with two of their star players - Fidel Edwards and Chris Gayle - staying in South Africa with the IPL until the last possible moment before joining the squad. Added to that during their four innings on this tour so far they have failed to reach 250 three times suggesting that they are there for the taking.

They have not won a test series against one of the other members of the "big eight" on foreign soil since 1995 which was the year that Newcastle had that massive points lead at Christmas in the Premier League, Bon Jovi were topping the charts with "Always" and cricket loving John Major was Prime Minister. That is a long time ago and if they have anything about them they must realise this is a great opportunity to lay that ghost to rest.

But the Windies are famous for their laid back approach and Coach John Dyson sees nothing in their preparation to cause concern. That attitude should cost them dearly but England being as poor as they are, they may well let them off the hook. It's [1.74] to back England for a series win, [3.15] for the draw and [7] on Chris Gayle and his men being victorious.

Tough call - the [1.74] about England, given the current state of the West Indies side looks value, England have held firm at that price and not shortened despite the defeat that the Lions inflicted on the opposition. Still, this is the England cricket team and I can't bring myself to back them at odds on so I'll be laying them. If it were the Lions however.........