This weeks one-dayers will most likely see England fielding a 36-year-old wicketkeeper in Paul Nixon, and captained by a 32-year-old who has hardly played cricket for a year. Clearly, in the wake of the Ashes debacle any notions of planning for the future have gone out of the window, which begs the question as to why Andy Flower was not considered for selection, either for the one-dayers or indeed the main Ashes event? Granted, Flower is 38 and has not kept wicket at Essex for several seasons, but his batting would have added much-needed depth to England's fragile top-order, and allowed Andrew Flintoff to move down to number 7. Now England-qualified, he has even been in Perth as the A team's batting coach. It would, of course, not have been a long term move, but Flower scored 1424 runs at 67 in Division 1 of the championship last season, and quite clearly still has what it takes, especially when you consider Alec Stewart played for England until he was almost 40. If there was talent coming through, then this would have been a backward step, but the next cab off the rank from here, presuming Read and Jones are finished, is not immediately obvious. Matt Prior's technical deficiencies were clear in the ODIs he played, although he remains in the A squad, while for some reason Fletcher does not seem to fancy James Foster. Steven Davies at Worcestershire apparently has immense promise, but the selectors thankfully appear to have learnt their lessons when it comes to blooding young keepers with Read and Foster, and should allow him to develop his batting in county cricket first. Pothas at Hampshire has been mentioned, but at the moment Nixon looks in pole-position, which is not something that seemed likely barely even a month ago. If, then, age is suddenly not a problem, then why not Flower?
