Graveney says sorry to Gough

Darren Gough © Getty Images

England chairman of selectors David Graveney has publicly apologised to Darren Gough for the way his omission from the preliminary World Cup squad was handled.

When England revealed the 30 names in contention for the Caribbean, they announced Gough, fellow Yorkshireman Tim Bresnan and spinner Ian Blackwell had not, and were not expected to reach, satisfactory levels of fitness by February 15, the day the squad will be trimmed in half.

Gough - the most prolific England one-day bowler in history with 235 victims - was only told of his fate via text message.

Gough and Blackwell were both upset to have subsequently been perceived as unfit and overweight.

“What I said at the time was not the right way to deal with it,” conceded Graveney.

“Particularly with Darren’s years of service for England I should have dealt with it in a far better way.

“Both men were assessed in terms of their current fitness status.

“Things have been portrayed in a slightly insulting way to Darren, which I regret; he is very professional, he does a lot of work in order to keep himself fit.

“The bottom line is the selectors have chosen to stick with younger bowlers and therefore that is the most appropriate reason why Darren has not been included.

“There should have been a lot more sensitivity for a person of his standing. One great quality about Darren is that he backs himself and still thinks he has a role to play.

“Ian is coming back from a particularly serious shoulder injury, that process is going well but the fact he hasn’t played any cricket was the underlying reason for him not being selected.”