England's Golden Oldies

The provisional list for this winter's Academy is crammed with as many pace bowlers and spinners as the scouts can find. Clearly these two disciplines have been identified as areas of weakness by Rod Marsh, Hugh Morris and the selectors. There is one player who will certainly represent England at some point - Ian Bell. There are two who already have, Chris Read and Paul Franks (albeit in a solitary one-day international). And there are plenty who remain no more than long-shots for further honours.

This batch of youngsters should be a match for any Australian state second XI they come across next winter, but I have my doubts whether they would trouble the current crop of first-class veterans plying their trade in England. The tradition of English pros keeping going until they drop continues. There are three reasons for this: they are now well-paid - by cricketing standards; they are good; and you are a long time umpiring.

One difference with the past is that they are all now remarkably fit for their age. No longer do forgiving coaches or spectators chuckle gently at a lapse at long leg, caused by the passing years. The old men are castigated for their mistakes along with the rest of them, though many have had the good sense to hone their slip-catching skills.

There are more than 30 over-35s playing county cricket and most of them are excelling. Only last week the most senior member, Kim Barnett, carried his bat for 182, Neil Fairbrother hit a hundred and Peter Bowler 84, while against Durham two weeks ago Graeme Hick clocked up a triple century. Alec Stewart refuses to drift away. Instead he cements his England place. Meanwhile Malcolm and Phil DeFreitas defy their birth certificates while sharing the new ball and most of the wickets at Grace Road.

The youth culture has not quite seeped through to cricket yet. They are trying with the Academy and the notion of fast-tracking talented young cricketers. The only trouble is that they don't score as many runs as the old uns. The England set-up at least pays lip service to the notion of promoting youth. Nasser Hussain speaks warmly of his 'youngsters'. Well, Andrew Flintoff and Alex Tudor are only 24 but the other two 'pups', Marcus Trescothick and Michael Vaughan, are 26 and 27 respectively. In any other international team they would not be regarded as young.

Often it is little more than lip service when England select. When it came to the crunch at the start of the season, the selectors opted for relative old lags such as John Crawley and Dominic Cork rather than a Bell or a Simon Jones. Take the average age of England's team playing in the NatWest final yesterday (29) and compare it to that of the Indians (24) and the pattern is confirmed.

Indeed the England selectors - along with Ronnie Irani - have given succour to the thirtysomething county cricketer. By plucking out Irani, now in his thirty-first year, they give hope to those such as Kent's David Fulton, so prolific last year, and other county stalwarts, who produce the right figures. Irani, by dint of his unquenchable self-belief, rather than a pure bowling action or batting stroke, justifies his call-up. There is scope for another David Steele, who made his Test debut just before his thirty-fourth birthday.

Probably the most physically demanding role for any cricketer is to be stationed behind the stumps for hours on end, yet this has become the preserve of the old man. It is an area that has caused the selectors much agonising until Stewart's reincarnation. It doesn't help them that so many of our wicketkeepers are of Stewart's generation. Stewart aside, five county keepers are over 35 (Adrian Aymes, Richard Blakey, Neil Burns, Steven Rhodes and Jack Russell) and Rob Turner joins their ranks this year.

This was the most competitive area when plucking out the 11 below. It is a team that would take some beating. I am not quite sure who we would station at cover point, but there are years of know-how there and some quirky techniques. No sane coach would encourage his charges to copy the method of Barnett, Bowler, Fairbrother - or Malcolm for that matter - but their methods have stood the test of time.

The one surprising problem in picking the side was the dearth of spinners. In the past, Norman Gifford, John Emburey, Ray Illingworth and Jack Simmons wheeled away into their forties, but no more. Maybe the shortage of old spinners mirrors the shortage of spinners full stop. So there is a call-up for Phil Tufnell, the 'Artful Dodger' who has with the passage of time become more of a Fagin figure.

The veterans XI

K Barnett (Gloucs) 41

P Bowler (Somerset) 38

G Hick (Worcs) 36

N Fairbrother (Lancs) 38

R Smith (Hants) 38

M Maynard (Glamorgan) 36

A Stewart (Surrey) 39

M Fleming (Kent) 37

P DeFreitas (Leics) 36

D Malcolm (Leics) 39 P Tufnell (Middx) 36