England Test tour party to West Indies

I fear you're right - but hope you're wrong, HHS.

And Alex Hales has surely jumped ahead of KP as the next cab off the rank. Another century today v Hants  and he now has 511 f/c runs for the season. And it's only April 26, which gives him another 35 days to score a further 489 for 1000 runs before the end of May.

His decision to pull out of the IPL may have been a smarter move than Kev's...

I agree Borderman. If any batsman in county cricket deserves an England call on current form it's Alex Hales.

Getting the strong impression that this forum's favourite cricketing journalist has been, shall we say,  successfully acclimatised into the ECB culture. www.espncricinfo.com/west-indies-v-england-2015/content/story/868753.html

How else to explain glittering pearls such as "England have now embraced a continuity of selection policy that has allowed players more opportunity to settle into the team and created a more stable environment" and the related quote from Gary Ballance that "everyone is focused on trying to win the game; not how they stay in the side". That seems to echo Cook's latest refusal to consider anyone but Trott opening and his lack of inventiveness in persisting with 4 medium-fast right armers and an offspinner on these supine wickets."The normal inclination is to go with the same team because you like to give people the confidence that they are not always playing for their place"

There's an even better piece of jaw-dropping sycophancy later in the piece, though. This really has to be shown in full to savour it's magnificent, cyncial hypocrisy:
"There may be a downside to continuity. It can prevent the progression of new players and it could create complacency among the well-established. But with a critical press pack and ever-vigilant social media, it seems unlikely any modern player could really be allowed to coast."

So where is this critical press-pack ,unless the "press-pack" is a reference to an assembly of exclusive interviews/dressing-room hints direct from the laptop of Moores/contacts with even more drooling celebrity sports lickspittles, and has GD actually noticed that the ever-vigilant social media has no interest whatsoever in this dreary series enacted for the benefit of a few tourists and hangers-on? How unlikely is it that Trott has coasted through this series and will probably coast on until he reaches Antarctica unless there is managerial intervention? Wonderful that he thinks Adam Lyth's chance ("if it comes") will be for a series or more, and that Adil Rashid has benefited "from bowling at international batsmen every day". I wonder if he would have benefited more if he had been rewarded, as were players given the sole role years ago, by placing a sovereign on the stumps by the patrician members of the more stable environment?

Meanwhile in this disruptive and changeable environment back home we've has some superb examples of players excelling by playing for their place: Robinson, Machan and Shahzad here in Sussex, Daniel Lawrence at Essex, Rushworth at Durham, Nick Gubbins at Middlesex, and many others. The most vital and contested start to a Championship season for years has brought the very best out of players untouched by complacency and the feeling that they just want to play Mr Nice Guy and keep their mates on board for another few rides on the old gravy train.

How many ducks does Trott have to score before he is dropped? That's three in five innings now. And what a terrible, terrible shot.

Never should have been brought back and Moores and the selectors deserve sacking for that decision alone. Everybody but them and Dobell knew it was never going to work. Certainly everyone on this forum knew it was a bad idea.

And what an utter waste of Adam Lyth's promise. No game on the entire tour when we should have been finding out what he can do ahead of NZ and the Ashes. Instead he's now going to be thrown straight in at the deep end v Boult and Southee and then Starc and Johnson.

Stupid, stupid decision. Irresponsible ,too, because it would be no surprise if Trott's mental health problems return as a result of the unecessary pressure he's been put under in the Caribbean and he won't now be in a fit mental state even to play county cricket this season.

Crackers. But above all it's the lack of duty of care shown by Moores and the selectors to the poor bloke that has been so wrong.

I agree. On another forum there has been a good argument put forward that it should not have been up to Trott to determine when he was "fit" to resume Test cricket; it should have been the responsibility of the ECB medical advisers - there must be about 150 of them - to say whether he was equipped to deal with the stress of playing fast bowling and if he had the necessary concentration to deal with it, in much the same way as a Rugby player suffering from concussion would not be considered for selection unless a doctor had examined him thoroughly.