Tags:
Journalism of Courage
England captain Andrew Strauss is hoping he doesnt find himself again witnessing a dispute involving Pakistan as the teams prepare for their first Test since a ball-tampering row in 2006 on Thursday.
Matches between the sides have generated plenty of flashpoints,be it Shahid Afridi scuffing up the pitch last time they met in Pakistan or the row between then England captain Mike Gatting and Pakistan umpire Shakoor Rana in Faisalabad in 1987.
Strauss,deputising as England captain for the injured Michael Vaughan and Andrew Flintoff,was a spectator as umpires Darrell Hair and Billy Doctrove penalised Pakistan five runs for ball-tampering on the fourth day of the series finale at The Oval.
Pakistan refused to take the field after tea and were thus deemed to have forfeited the match the first time this had happened in Test history.
Even now,Strauss wonders if he could have done something more to prevent the match reaching its volatile climax. It was a terrible day and terrible for Test cricket. No one came out of that day with any credit, Strauss told The Mail.
Being new to the captaincy,I probably wasnt qualified to know what to do about it. I dont think I could have done much that would have changed what happened,but maybe I could have spoken more to Inzamam-ul-Haq (Pakistans captain). Its hard to say. It was not something that the England team were particularly involved in but it was not a great advert for the game and lets hope we dont get anything like that in the future.
Broad,Collingwood back
Meanwhile,England included Kevin Pietersen despite his lack of recent match practice and recalled Stuart Broad and Paul Collingwood to their 12-man squad on Sunday for the first Test against Pakistan at Trent Bridge.
England squad: Andrew Strauss (captain),Alastair Cook,Jonathan Trott,Kevin Pietersen,Paul Collingwood,Eoin Morgan,Matt Prior (wicketkeeper),Graeme Swann,Stuart Broad,James Anderson,Steven Finn,Ajmal Shahzad.
