November 21 Thursday 2002
Graveney defends medics against press

LONDON: The England cricket team's medical staff should not take the blame for the injury crisis which has hit the beleaguered tourists in Australia claimed chairman of selectors David Graveney on Tuesday.

Graveney has also been the target of the critics for selecting both Darren Gough and all-rounder Andrew Flintoff when both were struggling to be fit for the Ashes tour. Gough has since returned home without bowling a ball while Flintoff is out of the next two tests having failed to recover from the double hernia operation he underwent before the final test with India in the summer.

Their ailments have been added to by the serious knee injury paceman Simon Jones suffered in the first Test thrashing and spinner Ashley Giles's broken wrist during net practice on Tuesday, leaving them with a threadbare attack for the second Test starting in Adelaide on Thursday.

However, Graveney denied it was poor selection policy and blamed it on bad luck. "We selected our squad on the medical advice given," the former spinner told Sky News. "I think there's been some unnecessary criticism levelled at our medical teams, as it's not an exact science," added Graveney, who led an abortive rebel tour of South Africa in 1989 before it turned its back on apartheid.

Graveney, though, believed that the run of injuries was nothing new. "We have had a fair crop of injuries and players withdrawing for various reasons over the past couple of years. "Maybe that's a reflection of the number of matches we have asked them to play." Graveney said it was up to the remaining bowlers to pull together and
ensure England improved on their woeful display in the first Test in Brisbane.