In The Observer, former England offspinner Vic Marks takes a look at the one-day squad … Harmison out, Panesar in - and all captained by... well, we don't know yet … and he comes to the conclusion that England's one-day preparations are as shambolic as ever.
Everywhere we see the signs of a creaking vessel, shipping water, not knowing where it is going. Although Steve Harmison knows where he is going soon: back to England. The announcement of his retirement from one-day cricket - three months before the World Cup - confirms our misgivings about the pace bowler. For him cricket seems to be a job rather than a passion and he has decided to go part-time.
It was view shared by Michael Atherton in The Sunday Telegraph, who said that it was lucky the team was announced on the same day Shane Warne retired:
It was a splendid day to bury bad news. By announcing such an undistinguished one-day squad on the day the greatest cricketer of the modern game retired, the selectors clearly hoped it would slip under the radar. By and large it did.
