England seek one-day victory

GEORGETOWN, GUYANA: Eng-land skipper Michael Vaughan intends to open the batting in the one-day series against West Indies. Vaughan went in at number three in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka before Christmas but has decided to revert to his favoured role. “I will open with Trescothick. Most good Test opening partnerships also open at one-day level as well so I’ll be giving that my best go,” he said. Rain is, however, threatening to ruin today’s opening match in Guyana.

England’s warm-up game on Friday was washed out and the forecast is for more bad weather. “You can’t control the weather and if we don’t play here, we will go to Trinidad and prepare for that second game on Saturday. “It’s quite difficult, but as professionals you have to deal with it,” said Vaughan. If the game does go ahead, England will aim to capitalise on the absence of Brian Lara. Ramnaresh Sarwan will skipper West Indies on his home ground after Lara was ordered to rest a finger injury. “We haven’t played well in the Test series but we’ve been playing pretty well in ODIs so far this year and hopefully we can pull it off,” he said. England will make a late decision on their side, but it looks certain to include pace bowler Darren Gough. “I’m not here for the cash, I’m here to play for my country and hopefully do a good job,” he said. Gough is England’s all-time leading one-day wicket-taker with 188 victims and retired from Test cricket last year to prolong his international career in the shorter game.

The tourists have plenty of seam bowling options, with Steve Harmison, Andrew Flintoff, James Anderson and James Kirtley also in the squad. It is unlikely Harmison will play in every match following his extertions in the Test series, in which he took 23 wickets to help England to a 3-0 win. “All last summer I bowled with Jimmy Anderson in the one-dayers and we had a good partnership, so it all depends on what they decide because as soon as they get back they have a Test match (against New Zealand) within ten days,” said Gough. Gough, Kirtley, Andrew Strauss, Anthony McGrath and Ian Blackwell were not involved in the Tests and three others, Paul Collingwood, Rikki Clarke and Anderson, only played supporting roles. West Indies have also freshened up their squad with Corey Collymore the only fast bowler remaining from the Tests.

He will be supported by Mervyn Dillon and youngster Ravi Rampaul, while Ian Bradshaw and Dwayne Bravo await their international debuts. Shivnarine Chanderpaul may open with Chris Gayle, a partnership first tried out in South Africa, where they posted a stand of 193 in Johannesburg. But they will not relish the prospect of facing Gough with a new ball in his hand. “I retired from Test cricket because I felt I couldn’t achieve the standards I wanted to achieve, but in one-day cricket I think I can still do that,” he added.

Teams: WEST INDIES (from): Ramnaresh Sarwan (capt), Chris Gayle, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Ricardo Powell, Dwayne Smith, Ryan Hinds, Sylvester Joseph, Ridley Jacobs, Dwayne Bravo, Ian Bradshaw, Mervyn Dillon, Ravi Rampaul, Corey Collymore.
ENGLAND (from): Michael Vaughan (capt), James Anderson, Gareth Batty, Ian Blackwell, Rikki Clarke, Paul Collingwood, Andrew Flintoff, Ashley Giles, Darren Gough, Stephen Harmison, James Kirtley, Anthony McGrath, Chris Read, Andrew Strauss, Marcus Trescothick.
ONE-DAY series schedule: April 18 — Guyana; April 24 — Trinidad; April 25 —  Trinidad; April 28 — Grenada; May 1 — St Lucia; May 2 — St Lucia; May 5 — Barbados.