Cricket: Graveney Apologises to 'fat Boy' Gough

There was one abject apology from the chairman of selectors David Graveney yesterday - but it was not for the rigmarole surrounding Andrew Flintoff's temporary return as England captain. That episode, he asserted, had been handled with perfect efficiency. As for Darren Gough, who was left out of England's preliminary World Cup 30 last week amid a welter of fat-boy jokes, it was hard to recall when English cricket had last been overtaken by such a mood of mea culpa.

The sense of shame about indicating that Gough might be a bit overweight far outdid any level of embarrassment displayed for the Ashes whitewash. These days you can deride an England player's batting or bowling average, but as for his body mass index, don't go there.

Gough, whose 235 ODI wickets are an England record, was offended when he was informed by text that his World Cup ambitions were at an end. But he was incandescent when - after Graveney's briefing that he was one of three players who had failed a "general fitness assessment" - he was derided as overweight.

He now contests his own Ashes last hurrah tomorrow - a game of beach cricket between England and Australia on the Gold Coast - and presumably remains so combustible that Graveney may be told to dampen down his anger by the Queensland fire authorities. If Gough strips to the waist, he should beware the paparazzi.

"I would be the first person to say that in hindsight what I did at the time was not the right way to deal with it," Graveney said. "Particularly with Darren's years of service to England, I should have dealt with that with a lot more sensitivity towards a person of his standing. It was portrayed in an insulting way towards Darren, which I regret. He is very professional and he does a lot of work to keep himself fit and look after his legs. Everybody accepts that he has some serious injuries, but the bottom line is that the selectors have decided that they want to stick with younger bowlers.

"I do pride myself on making phone calls. On this occasion I thought he was in Australia, but I wasn't sure, so I sent him a text message in case it was three o'clock in the morning in England. That went awry, and then the way it was reported was Fat Boy Gough.

"One great quality about Darren is that he backs himself and still feels he has a role to play. The bottom line was that we wanted to stick with the young bowlers. You can never say that his England career is over, but obviously time is against him."

It has been a tough time for Gough as he seeks to build on his celebrity status as the 2005 winner of Strictly Come Dancing. Even a Radio 4 documentary last month, which examined the "Gough Effect" in taking dancing to a wider audience, was entitled Fat Boys Don't Dance.

On Flintoff's reappointment to the captaincy, until Michael Vaughan recovers from a minor hamstring tear, Graveney said that it was an understandable show of loyalty to the man who had stood in for Vaughan in the Ashes series. He stopped short of confirming that Flintoff would automatically lead England in the World Cup, in the event of Vaughan's further absence through injury, although that outcome would now seem to be a formality.

"The World Cup is quite a lot of bridges away," he said. "We will have to wait until we see how Michael's injury pans out. We are talking about Freddie filling in for Michael Vaughan for a period which we hope won't be too long. We did not try to twist Freddie's arm to get him to step down. But it was a very understandable reaction for him to take time to consider it. I am pleased. It would have been totally inappropriate to rush the decision.

"I said after the Test series that we have made many mistakes, but the appointment of the captain was not one of them. I think he did well with the resources available and, considering the way that the lads played initially, I was very happy with the job that he did.

"When I told Freddie that Michael Vaughan had been reinstated as one-day captain, the one thing he said to me was that he still had captaincy ambitions."

Heavy hitters


James Ormond 15st

Known as 'five bellies' to some on the county circuit. But not to his face

Ian Blackwell 17½st

Admitted in 2002 he needed to follow Andrew Flintoff and shed some pounds. We're still waiting

Inzamam-ul-Haq 15st Once attacked a fan who called him 'big potato'. Lost 2st for 2003 World Cup - then put it back on. Weight undisclosed

David Sales 14½st

Northants captain had his weight questioned when talked about as a potential Test player

Mark Ealham 14st

Hefty style with the bat backed by build to match