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CRICKET ROADSHOWS

Week 17 Review - 30 Aug, Lord's Hussain still guarded on Thorpe's tour plans

England captain Nasser Hussain told the Cricket Roadshow that Graham Thorpe still had "problems that he needs sorting out" before he can be seriously considered for the winter's Ashes tour.

Hussain, who was guest commentator for Channel 4 at Saturday's C&G Trophy final, said he was encouraged by Thorpe's willingness to tour but refused to be drawn on whether the Surrey left-hander would actually make the trip.

"We spoke in messages for about three days and I spoke to him at length in the last couple of days and he is still going through a difficult time," said Hussain.

"He has said to me that he would like to go to Australia but there are still problems that he needs sorting out. Graham has to convince the selectors, and himself more importantly, that he can get through a hard Ashes tour."

When asked directly whether he felt Thorpe would tour Hussain replied: "My hunch is that only Graham knows.

"I know I'm sitting on the fence here but it's such a difficult thing for him and it's such a difficult decision when it's been his career all of his life and it's an Ashes tour, because there's no greater tour.

"Only he knows and then that's just half of it because then the selectors have got to decide whether we feel that he's right mentally to get through the whole winter," added Hussain.

Looking at the more immediate future Hussain lamented England's continuing injury problems but remained up beat about beating India in the series decider at The Oval.

"It's been an absolute disaster this summer. This last selection meeting was farcical really," said the frustrated England skipper. "It took us two minutes to select 10 people for the side but to try and get that all-rounder… everyone we phoned up was injured.

"The bowling is switched around when people are injured and the continuity that we try to do through selection is now being disrupted due to injury. That's very hard for us to overcome but we'll just have to do it. It's such an important game for both sides we'll just have to stop complaining and get 11 people on the park who want to win the series for England."

Whether that means a Test recall for Hussain's Essex colleague Ronnie Irani remains to be seen – the squad will be announced on Sunday morning – but the captain stressed there would be no finger pointing after the Headingley debacle.

"It's very easy for everyone to say we should have bowled a bit fuller and a bit straighter but people just didn't get it right in the game. But it wasn't just the bowlers; all of us have got to take responsibility.

"We dropped some important catches, we didn't hit the stumps and we didn't particularly bat well either. I think it's weak just to say the bowlers got it wrong and it'll be all right next time. The captain and coach have all got to look why on the last two or three occasions when it has swung around why we haven't quite got it right."

Having said that he admitted England still had plenty of work to do on their bowling penetration if they wanted to start winning more games.

. "I suppose that's the next hurdle for us. We've moved on from being a side that rolled over far too easily, we're being very competitive and playing good cricket for large parts of the game and the next thing is to bowl sides out twice.

"It's an old cliché but you have to get 20 wickets and that's probably, without using an excuse, where we've missed a leader in our attack like Darren (Gough). When the wicket gets flat and it's second time around and you're a bit tired you need someone to give you that little bit of spark. There's other people out there who might be able to do that – the Joneses and the Harmisons – and we've got to keep looking on them to finish games off."

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