England turn to spin and Swann

Graeme Swann will play his first game of the Stanford venture with Samit Patel

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Graeme Swann reflected that the prominence of spin on the slow Antiguan track has helped his cause after being named in England’s side to face Trinidad & Tobago.

The Nottinghamshire off-spinner has entered the selection equation for the flagship contest against the Stanford Superstars on Saturday because of the effectiveness of the slow men at the Stanford Cricket Ground so far.

England were widely expected to stick with the formula that completed a 4-0 one-day routing of South Africa at the end of the summer.

However, conditions have dictated a re-think and England's management turned to Swann, 29, as their second spinner for the final warm-up against the winners of the Stanford Champions Cup tonight, at the expense of fast bowler James Anderson.

"Obviously I am delighted personally to see how the games have gone," Swann said. "I am not that surprised because Twenty20 cricket has always favoured spin bowling, and it was nice to see spin have such a big effect on the games played so far.

"I don't think it has done my cause any harm watching the ball grip and turn.

"I suppose I did view the players in that team having possession of the shirts but I also realised that 20-over cricket is a different game - an altogether different beast to 50-over cricket - and the more you take the pace off the ball the harder it is to score runs off.

"So at the back of my mind I was hoping I would get the chance for a game before Saturday. Financially you are in a very privileged position either way.

"I am one of the lucky people to be in this situation, so I am certainly not going to look a gift horse in the mouth.”

Swann played a key role in England’s one-day international series home and away against New Zealand, but missed out in the thrashing of the Proteas, with Notts team-mate Samit Patel preferred as a spin option.

"When you get picked for England, especially in my position, you have to take every game and enjoy playing,” added Swann.

Success for the likes of Samuel Badree, here seen bowling Ramnaresh Sarwan, has aided Swann

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"Missing the one-dayers in the summer hurt more than anything I've felt in a long time and not playing the other day felt exactly the same as that.

"Money didn't come into it; the fact I was not playing in an England shirt when I was in the squad meant the most to me."

But can anyone featuring in a match offering the largest team sport purse in history shut out thoughts of dollar bills?

"Yeah, you can," insisted Swann. "It's actually very easy to do that.

"When you are playing it is just like when you were doing so growing up as a kid, you forget where you are and what you're doing.

"You just get completely taken away by the competitive nature you find within yourself and forget what you're playing for.

"Some of the biggest games I have played in my career I have found the easiest because you get so pumped up."

Daren Ganga’s Trinidad & Tobago side are on a high after bouncing back from defeat to the Superstars by beating Middlesex Crusaders yesterday.

Ganga has opened the bowling with leg-spinner Samuel Badree, supplemented with fellow spinners Sherwin Ganga, Rishi Bachan and Amit Jaggernauth.

Meanwhile, Ryan Sidebottom's outside chances of playing at the weekend have declined further, due to a calf niggle he picked up during Sunday's warm-up win over Middlesex Crusaders.

Steve Harmison, ruled out against Middlesex through illness, replaces Sidebottom against Trinidad.