Sport 21-08-2002 Cricket: Old Guard Are Still `England`s Best Hope` who: England cricket team what: Play India in third nPower Test where: Headingley, LEEDS when: Tomorrow snippet: "During a summer when the potency and life-expectancy of England`s two senior fast bowlers has been questioned," says The Independent`s Angus Fraser, "Andrew Caddick came out fighting for the cause of the older man at Headingley yesterday." Caddick will play for England in the npower Third Test against India there tomorrow, making his first international appearance since tearing a rib muscle in June, says The Sun. And yesterday he staked his claim on a place in the winter tour Down Under (in which he has never featured), boasting that he and Darren Gough are England`s "best chance of beating Australia" when the time comes. "Caddick, 34 in November, steels himself to talk positively, however uncomfortably, like someone fresh out of a self-help class," says The Guardian`s David Hopps, sceptically. And one could argue that his successors have already proved their worth. The absence of Caddick and Gough "has allowed players like Matthew Hoggard to blossom," says The Evening Standard, "as well as giving opportunities to Steve Harmison and Simon Jones." Meanwhile, Simon Briggs in The Telegraph says that England and India could both join a boycott of the ICC Champions Trophy, due to begin in three weeks in Sri Lanka, after players were told that they must abandon their personal sponsorship agreements. [... more]

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