Jekyll and Hyde

As the fallout from England's first winter selection begins to gather, I thought this, by Mike Selvey, was a typically thoughtful appreciation of Harmison, whose career at Test level now looks dead and gone.

Selvey may be partially right in that England may end up missing Harmison in South Africa more than they now expect, but what they'll miss will be more the wistfully-recalled Harmy of blessed memory (Kingston, 2004) than the arrhythmic, Jekyll and Hyde trundler of too many recent encounters.

Elsewhere, I can't disagree too much with the selection of Steve Davies, but that of Luke Wright and the bypassing of Joe Denly look dubious.

If there's one thing Alastair Cook needs now it's not promotion (to the ODI squad) but competition.

Pear Shaped

Overall, the England selectors haven't come up with a bad series of selections ahead of the Ashes. There was no logical way to select Vaughan (so it's slightly surprising that they didn't), and, as I thought, Onions is a bit ahead of Harmison, although Ashington's finest has an opportunity to state his case at Worcester next week.

However, no announcement of this type is complete without a little bit of madness, and this time it came in the shape of Vikram Solanki. Someone obviously had the idea that the Lions side had to have at least three Worcestershire players in it to give the locals an incentive to turn up (and if that's true what does it say about the parochialism of county supporters?), and, while Steven Davies and Stephen Moore probably deserve to be there, does Solanki?

A decent, occasionally handsome, batsman, who's in good form. But someone whose unfulfilled ODI career is behind him and who is never, surely, going to play Test cricket. If they felt they really had to have another Worcestershire player then Moeen Ali would have been a better choice.

The only real point to Solanki's selection would seem to be to make Owais Shah aware - if he wasn't already - that his own short Test career is a thing of the past.

Worcester Reflections

For me, May ended and June began at the one and only Worcester, where the home county beat Essex in a relatively low-scoring LV Division Two game on a track which, although it settled down a bit in the Saturday sunshine, always gave the bowlers plenty of assistance. Few batsmen from either side coped well with it; the exceptions being Worcestershire's young local opener Daryl Mitchell, the evergreen and always under-rated Ben Smith, whose double of 60 and 71 went a long way towards securing Worcestershire's victory and Ravi Bopara, whose gritty and patient second innings 85 - the innings of a potential Test player - made sure that Essex went down with a fight.

For the bowlers it was largely a matter of getting the ball in the right place and letting the pitch do the rest, especially at the Diglis End, but, while Steve Magoffin was desperately unlucky on the final day and Kabir Ali also bowled well, the stand-out seamer was Simon Jones, who bowled with pace, accuracy and desire to take eight in the game. Bowling like this there's no doubt he'd be an asset to England (and he clearly thinks so too), but he only bowled 18 complete overs and he'll need to adjust to a heavier workload before he's really ready. The signs, though, are very, very good.

Lastly a word about a young cricketer who I talked up a lot two years ago but who's been forgotten amid the attention lavished on Prior and Ambrose since. This may be no bad thing, as Steven Davies needs time and space to develop away from the limelight but, to me, everything he does, both with keeping and batting gloves on, carries an unmistakeable air of class and assurance, even if he isn't cashing in.

I still think he's an England player of the future and, rising 22, he has time on his side.

Not Before Time

It was great to see that James Foster has been brought into the England Lions squad to participate in the Duleep Trophy in India, replacing the injured Steven Davies.

He's been ignored for far too long and this is his chance to gain a foothold on the long road back.

Team Selection

After a winter of blunders on the team selection front the England selectors (not just Duncan this time) have come up with a useful England 'A' side to tour Bangladesh.

Good to see the great Steven Davies and Stuart Broad there; interesting also to see Nick Compton get in on the back of some heavy scoring for Middlesex last season and also Adil Rashid, the latest great leg-spin hope (who can bat as well).

Central Contracts

There were some obvious decisions among the new round of England central contracts announced today - deals for Cook and Panesar for starters - but also some wishful ones - Simon Jones and Michael Vaughan - and a downright odd and potentially counter-productive one, which is covered very well by Tim de Lisle here.

As I've said all along, despite Read's generally excellent keeping and batting in the last two Tests against Pakistan, and the fact that Geraint Jones has made very few runs since he's been back at Kent, don't be surprised if Jones lines up in Brisbane. He will always be Fletcher's favourite and I can't see him being properly removed from the scene until Steven Davies can't be held back any longer.

Davies for Read for Jones?

Spent a few hours this afternoon watching the Pro 40 game between Worcestershire and Derbyshire on Sky. Some good fielding from both sides and a comfortable win for Worcestershire to go top of the Second Division. The Derbyshire side was very young, including one sixteen year-old, Daniel Redfern, who looked like the youngest person seen on an English first-class ground since India brought Parthiv Patel (17 going on 12) over in 2002.

But what was really notable was the performance of Worcestershire's twenty year-old wicketkeeper-batsman Steven Davies - a smooth half-century, some sound and occasionally brilliant keeping and a couple of personable and blandly articulate interviews. Atherton, having not seen him before, was clearly impressed, and even Bob Willis got a little bit excited at one point.

All in all a pretty handy package, and one can't help feeling that Read and Jones are both just keeping the England berth warm for him. I reckon he'll be in the England side within three years and will stay there for a long time.

You didn't hear it here first.