Selectors undermine grassroots

ADIL RASHID ditched red-ball cricket – that’s the long form of the game – for the white ball version earlier this summer.

He signed a contract with Yorkshire to play one-dayers and the T20. Fair enough. His choice.

Now, he’s been picked by England to play in the Test series against India next week.

Yorkshire chief executive Mark Arthur criticised the ECB for sending out the wrong message. He’s absolutely right, too. Rashid (below) cannot be blamed for accepting a return to the Test team.

He would have calculated the fact that he wasn’t likely to be picked when he turned his back on international Test cricket.

But Arthur, while looking after Yorkshire’s best interests, is also expected to produce the next batch of international-quality cricketers.

With the ECB embracing Rashid, what does it say to every other player who backs the county game and wants to play Test cricket for England and not just the short versions of the game?

It undermines them and what Yorkshire and the rest of the counties are trying to produce – England-ready players.

For that is where they are drawn from – the first-class county game.

It says: Don’t bother putting in the hard yards for Yorkshire/lancashire/ Warwickshire/surrey. If you’re good enough, we’ll pick you anyway – regardless of whether you want to trouble yourself playing four-day matches.

It’s just wrong. And it is a decision that shouldn’t be repeated.