Gough Lashes Out at England

Darren Gough has blamed the England management team for the injury breakdown which forced his withdrawal from tomorrow's first Test against India at Lord's.

The England fast bowler claimed he was forced to prove his fitness by playing in the Roses match which ended on Monday, even though his specialist had advised him to rest for two weeks.

Gough lasted less than two days of the County Championship game against Lancashire as he suffered a recurrence of an injury to his right knee and immediately withdrew from the Test.

"I was advised to rest for a couple of weeks and I felt it would be better if I didn't play against Lancashire," he said. "My specialist advised me to miss the game but Lord's really wanted me to play to prove my fitness and I didn't have a choice. I felt sore when I was bowling on Saturday and Sunday and I knew I had problems. "I knew then that I'd miss the first Test. It's back to the drawing board now. I'm seeing a specialist today and could be out for a couple more weeks."

The coach Duncan Fletcher insisted that the right decision had been made, however, and that it was preferable that Gough broke down in a championship game than in the middle of a Test match.

"We spoke to Darren after he played in a C&G Trophy game [at Essex last Tuesday] and he said that he wanted to play in the four-day match. It was important for him to prove he was fit enough to play in a five-day Test. "If he hadn't played he would have pitched up here and bowled a few overs and we'd have been happy for him to play in the Test. And where would we have been then? That's why it was crucial for him to play a county game."

Gough featured in the recent one-day series against India and Sri Lanka but before that had not played a first-class match in 11 months, after two operations on his right knee.

England have now placed Gough's club-mate Chris Silverwood on stand-by. "We're not sending for anyone else at the moment," Fletcher said. "But Chris is playing down in Guildford, so we've notified him that he's on stand-by."

Andy Caddick and Alex Tudor are also absent injured, as is England's leading batsman Marcus Trescothick. "It's a blow and it reminds me a bit of last summer," Fletcher added. "But while it's a setback we went out to India last winter with a very inexperienced side and played some good cricket; hopefully the guys can repeat that performance."

Fletcher hinted strongly that Simon Jones, the fast bowler from Glamorgan, will make his debut tomorrow and that Mark Butcher will open in Trescothick's place.

Alec Stewart, meanwhile, has been given the remaining central contract by the England and Wales Cricket Board after his triumphant return to the side. Worth about £35,000, it will mean a lot more to this singular cricketer than the special presentation he will receive for becoming England's most capped Test cricketer when he makes his 119th appearance tomorrow.

When England named 11 of the 12 central contracts before the season it was thought that Ian Bell or Mark Ramprakash would make up the numbers.

The news is the clearest sign yet that Stewart, who will be 40 in April, is regarded as England's first-choice keeper for the foreseeable future, even though the management team have invested a great deal of faith and money in James Foster. It was the Essex wicketkeeper who was awarded a central contract at the start of the season, even after an indifferent winter with gloves and bat.

It was felt then that Stewart, who pulled out of the tour of India and was not considered for the New Zealand leg, had made his final international appearance.

But, when Foster broke his hand, England turned not to Glamorgan's Mark Wallace, who had attended the academy in Australia last winter, or Nottinghamshire's Chris Read, who is back in favour, but to the gnarled veteran. But what is obviously good news for Stewart may come as a stark warning to Foster that he will not get his place back. In fact he has recently played for Essex's Second XI while Zimbabwe's Andy Flower has played as the first team's wicketkeeper-batsman.

Now Stewart would appear to be a certainty to play ahead of his young rival in this winter's Ashes series and more than likely in the World Cup, which starts in South Africa during February.