Thorpe aiming to repay England faith as Tudor misses out

It was apt that the earthmover digging up the famous Lord's outfield yesterday should be supplied by a company called Gamble, because that is just what the England selectors have done in selecting both Graham Thorpe and Darren Gough in their 16-man Ashes squad.

No one would deny that both these players, when fit and healthy, should be automatic choices for Nasser Hussain's side but each has had a year they would rather forget and the chances of them still being in Australia by 2003 are slim.

In selecting Thorpe, whose mind over the last year must have resembled the current state of Lord's – a battlefield – the selectors have made a brave decision but also taken a major risk. The off-field problems surrounding the breakdown of his marriage and the subsequent access arrangements to his two children have thrown the life of the 33-year-old into turmoil.

Because of such problems the Surrey left-hander announced his retirement from one-day international cricket earlier this summer before deciding to take a complete rest from the game. The major worry for Hussain is that Thorpe has failed to complete or participate in four of his side's last five tours.

The England chairman of selectors, David Graveney, admitted such after announcing the squad. "Its a scenario where Graham can only state what he feels at this stage. Risk is the right word but there has been a change in his private life in the last couple of weeks that has made a huge difference. It would be wrong for me to expand, however, I have noticed a change in him and people who have worked with him have expressed the same opinion. We looked at the risk involved when we [the selectors] met on Sunday and we decided to pick Graham. He is, after all, one of our better players."

One of those who has been working with Thorpe, who averages 46 against the Aussies, is the former England manager Mickey Stewart. "Graham has been training for the last three weeks and I have had two net sessions with him," said Stewart, who has known him since he was 14. "I have never known him so upbeat and up for it. He has decided he wants to give it a real go. He is as talkative now as he has ever been, which must be a good sign."

And knowing what Thorpe has been thinking has always been one of the main problems for those attempting to work out his state of mind. He is a private man who gives little away but keeping problems to himself has led to him becoming deep and brooding at times.

The selectors, who have gone out on a limb for Thorpe, will be desperately hoping that such behaviour is a thing of the past and his troubles are truly behind him because the damage of another early return home from an overseas tour would undermine England's slim chances of regaining the Ashes for the first time in 16 years and the reputations of those who have stood by him.

On hearing the good news, however, an upbeat Thorpe said: "I am delighted to have been picked for the tour having not played for five or six weeks. There was a lot of doubt as to whether I would go and it is up to me to repay the faith that the selectors have shown in me.

"I feel the break has given me the chance to clear my mind and address the off-field issues which were there before. Everything is now more settled in my private life and I am looking forward to playing cricket again. I'm hoping to play for Surrey [today] and I'm looking forward to getting back into the swing of things. It will be nice to have a bat in my hand again and I know that I'm going to have to work hard in the run-up to the Ashes because Australia is a tough place to tour."

While Thorpe's problems have been mental, Gough's have been physical. It may be easier to see the problems in his right knee but it does not mean they are any less of a risk. Gough, after all, has not successfully come through a first-class game of cricket for over a year.

The performances of Marcus Trescothick, Michael Vaughan, Mark Butcher and Hussain have made up for Thorpe's absence and England's batting looks stronger than it has for some time, but the bowling, which looked strong over the first half of the summer, has faded and by the end the hole left by Gough's absence was all too apparent. "As far as the specialists are concerned he is on target and his rehabilitation is going very well at Lilleshall," Graveney said of Gough.

As always, there are losers as well as winners when a squad is announced and the most disappointed man would have been Alex Tudor. Man of the match for his performance during the third Test against Sri Lanka in June, the Surrey paceman has paid the price for his bowling falling away towards the end of the season.

The reasoning behind his omission is because there are concerns about his strength and stamina. In order to improve on these he has been sent for a second winter at the National Academy in Adelaide. The consolation is that he is in touching distance should anything happen to Gough as are all those named in the Academy squad yesterday.

Replacing Tudor are the two fast and nasties, Simon Jones and Stephen Harmison. Both have genuine pace but are raw and playing against quality batsmen in Australia will mean they will have to learn quickly.

Nine of the 16 named are to be offered 12-month contracts by the England and Wales Cricket Board which will make them the highest earners in the history of English cricket. Whilst there are grades that mean Alec Stewart will earn more than Matthew Hoggard, the lucky nine will share £1.2m between them. However, when match fees and win bonuses are added this works out that a leading player could earn in the region of £350,000 a year. Why couldn't I have been born 10 years later!

Academy Squad

To attend the England Academy in Adelaide this winter:

K Ali (Worcestershire)

J M Anderson (Lancashire)

G J Batty (Worcestershire)

I D Blackwell (Somerset)

R Clarke (Surrey)

K W Hogg (Lancashire)

G J Muchall (Durham)

M S Panesar (Northamptonshire)

C M W Read (Nottinghamshire)

D I Stevens (Leicestershire)

C T Tremlett (Hampshire)

J O Troughton (Warwickshire)

A J Tudor (Surrey)

G G Wagg (Warwickshire)

M A Wallace (Glamorgan)