Sorry, but Bell has no hope of Test call
IAN BELL’S hopes for a successful England comeback must be viewed with doubt.
I am a great fan of Bell but he had a poor year last season and in this age of central contracts the emphasis is always on younger players that come into the team.
At the moment, once players are discarded they rarely return, and I cannot see him coming back at 35 after more than a year out of the England side. Too many new top order players will crowd Bell out as well as Alastair Cook and Joe Root.
The headline to the article (“Bell backs Root to handle captaincy and still hopes for Ashes win No.5, January 27) said Bell would have the chance of a fifth Ashes win in Australia next winter. It should have stated that Bell hopes for a sixth Ashes win.
There was more room for romance when the game was not so based on athleticism.
Cyril Washbrook, by then a selector who also played for Lancashire, was recalled aged 41 in 1956 after not playing for England for five years and scored 98 against the Aussies in the third Test at Headingley.
This turned the game England’s way after they has slipped to 17-3 before Peter May and Washbrook took control and England went on to square the series.
One of the other most notable was Tom Graveney who came back aged 39 after playing his last Test three years before to face the might of the West Indies.
And he did so with distinction scoring 459 runs at an average of 76.50. Back to Bell and what he said. I was intrigued about his comment on the Big Bash and the family support it generates.
Are families as a whole absent from T20 matches in the UK?
If this is the case, do the counties consult the Big Bash League who may have more competitive ticket prices that encourage families to come?
It is the major way forward and if families come to the one day game, some of them would be encouraged to come to the firstclass game if there were cheap prices.
I do realise that for many people they want to see a game and a result in a single day which is not the case with the longer format. DAVID RIMMER Hertford Heath