VAUGHAN RETURNS TO ENGLAND SQUAD

Michael Vaughan
By JMB
December 21 2006

Michael Vaughan has been name in England's ODI squad for the triangular tournament with Australia and New Zealand. Steve Harmison has announced his retirment from ODI cricket and Aussie legend Shane Warne confirmed he will hang up his sunbloc and hair gel after the Sydney test.

Vaughan has recovered from a career threatening knee injury and makes the 16 man squad to play in Australia ahead of the World Cup. The selectors have made no announcement on who will captain the side. It appears they will monitor Vaughan's fitness and form prior to reinstating him as skipper.

Vaughan's inclusion is his first call-up by England since suffering a recurrence of his long-standing knee problems in India in the early part of 2006 and follows weeks of rehabilitation with the Academy in Perth. David Graveney said "Michael has been included in the one-day squad subject to fitness. He has made excellent progress with his recovery from injury, but we feel that it would not be appropriate to announce the captaincy of the one-day side at this stage and will delay any announcement until after the Test series."

As Vaughan re-enters the international fold Shane Warne has announced that the Sydney test will be his last. Warne currently has 699 test wickets and wants to go out on a high. So as one of the games all time legends prepares to leave the international stage, Steve Harmison has announced his retirement from One Day International cricket in a move that he hopes will extend his test match career.

Harmison, who had always intended to retire from one-day international cricket after the World Cup, has brought the decision forward, and Geraint Jones, who was not picked for the Champions Trophy, is left out again after a disappointing showing in the opening three Tests. Harmison said "After careful consideration and having taken advice from several people who have been close to me throughout my career, I have decided to retire from one-day International cricket with immediate effect. This has been a difficult decision but I want to play at the highest level for as long as I can and believe that concentrating solely on Test cricket is the best way forward for me during the next phase of what will hopefully be a long England career."

It is also a squad which includes left-arm spinner Monty Panesar for the first time, but otherwise indicates a return to previously discarded players including recalls for 36-year-old wicketkeeper Paul Nixon and injury-prone Hampshire seamer Chris Tremlett.

THE FULL SQUAD

MP Vaughan (Yorkshire) Age 32 Caps 74
AJ Strauss (Middlesex) Age 29 Caps 61
IR Bell (Warwickshire) Age 22 Caps 26
PD Collingwood (Durham) Age 30 Caps 103
KP Pietersen (Hampshire) Age 26 Caps 41
A Flintoff (Lancashire) Age 29 Caps 105
EC Joyce (Middlesex) Age 28 Caps 3
JWM Dalrymple (Middlesex) Age 25 Caps 14
CMW Read (Notts, wkt) Age 28 Caps 33
PA Nixon (Leics, wkt) Age 36 Caps 0
SI Mahmood (Lancashire) Age 25 Caps 15
J Lewis (Gloucestershire) Age 31 Caps 8
LE Plunkett (Durham) Age 21 Caps 16
CT Tremlett (Hampshire) Age 25 Caps 3
MS Panesar (Northamptonshire) Age 24 Caps 0
JM Anderson (Lancashire) Age 24 Caps 53