Selection for ‘B team’ is an insult disguised as an honour
Jun 23 2009 by Luke Edwards, The Journal
Durham have every right to be unhappy at the way Stephen Harmison and Graham Onions have been treated. Chief Sports Reporter Luke Edwards looks at a bewildering decision by England’s selectors
“As for Stephen, I’m not sure what the rationale behind their thinking is as they already know what he can do against world class batsmen when he is firing on all cylinders. However, there isn’t anything we can do about it and we just have to get on with it.”
It is a feeling of helplessness common in a sport where the domestic game is designed to service the needs of the national side above anything else.
Cook can complain as much as he wants about losing his two best bowlers against Worcestershire to play in a tour match, it will not do him any good in the short or the long term.
Onions will also miss all four of Durham’s remaining Twenty20 games, starting against Derbyshire tonight, but it is a slap in the face which must be accepted with good grace.
“This sport is completely different to say, Premier League football, where you don’t get any fixture clash which could cause a club versus country dispute,” explained Cook. “That is the way the game is set up, the national side is the most important thing and we know that.
“England will have a clear idea of what they intend to do in the First Test and Cardiff has had a reputation as a turning wicket this summer so they look as though they intend to go into it with two spinners.
“Graham and Stephen are both very unfortunate, in my opinion, because they have been bowling fantastically well this season as individuals and as a strike bowling pair. But they could not do it without the back-up of other people and it has been how well we have bowled as a unit which has really pleased me.
“Can I see an England side with Onions and Harmison in this summer? Well, they are not in the team at the moment and they will be disappointed, but there are five Tests against the Australians and there could be injuries and loss of form for the selectors to think about. They have got to be the first cabs off the ranks as far as I’m concerned.” While Harmison and Onions have had to digest the news regarding their international snubs, Cook has a Twenty20 campaign to try to salvage.
Cook added: “We’ve got a mountain to climb in Twenty20 cricket, but it isn’t an insurmountable one. As we have seen with the Twenty20 World Cup over the last three weeks it is very unpredictable.
“You can put together three or fours wins just as easily as you can suffer three or four defeats so we still believe we can reach the knock-out phase.”
