Cricket: Legspinner gets England recall

LONDON - Surrey legspinner Ian Salisbury was the one unexpected selection as England named a 16-strong party for their test cricket series in Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

Salisbury, a consistent performer at county level with champions Surrey, has taken 40 first-class wickets at 19.47 this season. However, the 30-year-old has a poor test record.

In 12 matches he has taken just 19 wickets, each one costing on average 70.84 runs. In four tests against Pakistan, he has taken seven wickets at 75.29 each. Against Sri Lanka he has taken one wicket for 86.

Salisbury's inclusion means there is no place for fellow legspinner Chris Schofield.

Schofield, aged 21, was one of England's 12 centrally contracted players at the start of the season but chairman of selectors David Graveney said England did not think he was ready to go to the subcontinent.

The lack of surprise in the other selections is down to the fact that of the 16 players chosen, the 12 announced for the final test against the West Indies knew they were certain to be going on tour.

This left four places, and besides Salisbury, the other members of the quartet are Lancashire allrounder Andrew Flintoff, Kent's Paul Nixon, who will be reserve wicketkeeper to Alec Stewart, and Yorkshire pace bowler Matthew Hoggard.

England test squad: Nasser Hussain (Essex, captain), Michael Atherton (Lancashire), Andrew Caddick (Somerset), Dominic Cork (Derbyshire), Andrew Flintoff (Lancashire), Ashley Giles (Warwickshire), Darren Gough (Yorkshire), Graeme Hick (Worcestershire), Matthew Hoggard (Yorkshire), Paul Nixon (Kent, wkt), Ian Salisbury (Surrey), Alec Stewart (Surrey), Marcus Trescothick (Somerset), Graham Thorpe (Surrey), Michael Vaughan (Yorkshire), Craig White (Yorkshire)

One-day squad: Hussain (captain), Mark Alleyne (Gloucestershire), Caddick, Mark Ealham (Kent), Flintoff, Giles, Gough, Hick, Nick Knight (Warwickshire), Alan Mullally (Hampshire), Stewart, Trescothick, Thorpe, White.