BEYOND THE BOUNDARY

Bob Woolmer, for one, will be happier that his South Africans will be facing Richard Johnson rather than Phillip DeFreitas

Rumour has it that Monday's meeting of the England selectors was chaired by Raymond Illingworth. And it is true that the person reading the squad out on the radio sounded like him. But I cannot believe he actually picked the senior squad. There are no controversial selections, no wild cards, no eccentric hunches involving players from Yorkshire, Australia, or preferably both. For the first time in his career, Illy has done something that does not have his fingerprints all over it. The surprise is not really Richard Johnson. The surprise is the lack of surprises.

Johnson is a gamble, but one that was widely predicted, and almost as widely endorsed. The only real rabbit to emerge from the hat, apart from Devon Malcolm, was Andrew Symonds, and the shock was not that the selectors wanted him - the only doubt was over which squad he deserved to be in - but that the ICC executed a U-turn. Even that, on reflection, should not have astonished us.

This is not to say that no one will wake up this morning feeling sorry for himself. Robert Henderson, for one, must be pretty narked. If you're the author of a notorious article questioning the dedication of black and foreign-bred cricketers, the selection of a coloured man who calls himself a fair-dinkum Aussie must be the stuff of nightmares. For this reason alone, it is to be hoped that Symonds accepts the selectors' invitation.

There are three players I feel for. The first is Alan Wells, who has gone from being in the first XI to not being in the first XXXI in the space of eight days. The selectors were in a tricky position here. Wells had probably only got his chance because of Robin Smith's injury; it would have been wrong to prefer him to Mark Ramprakash or John Crawley in the senior squad, and it may be that the captaincy of the juniors will be the making of Nasser Hussain.

But the end result is that the selectors have allowed a single delivery - the one from Curtly Ambrose that Wells chipped straight to short leg on the first day at The Oval - to dictate their choice, and perhaps to end a Test career as well as start it. They have also thrown away both the men most responsible for last winter's A team successes - Wells and Phil Neale, the cricket manager. A fairer solution would surely have been to keep Wells on as captain, and hope that the vice-captaincy had the desired effect on Nasser Hussain. It did on Ramprakash.

The second is Glen Chapple. Remember him? He's the 21-year-old Lancashire seamer who took the new ball on the A tour. As did Dominic Cork, but Chapple was the more successful of the two. Unwise voices were soon raised, describing him as "the new Darren Gough", and "England's saviour". Chapple was discussed at the selectors' meeting before the first Test, but after that he found his second season in county cricket harder than his first. This is not an uncommon experience: it happened to Graham Thorpe, among many others. With Thorpe, the selectors persevered, and they, or their successors, are now reaping the fruits of their wisdom.

Chapple has been dumped, while a less successful member of the same A- team attack, Richard Johnson, makes the big leap. Again, the message this sends out is a bad one. It says: we would rather have a player with a good county season behind him than one who has shone in an England cap, under pressure, far from home and in unhelpful conditions.

The third man who deserves sympathy is Phillip DeFreitas. This is not just because his five-year-old daughter, already badly asthmatic, is now in hospital with severe burns. DeFreitas is a frustrating cricketer, capable of great things in all departments, and equally capable of mediocrity. Nobody could claim that he had not had his chances.

On the other hand, he has become a latterday Derek Randall, the man who always gets dropped when scapegoats are needed. He is one of the reasons why England have become a good one-day side. And he has had much to do with two of their best victories of recent times, making vital, rapid, morale-boosting runs against South Africa at The Oval and Australia in Adelaide.

And as England's longest-serving player - first picked nine years ago this week, as a Johnson-like long shot - he could have given the senior squad two things that it acutely lacks: experience of South Africa, and experience of Pakistan, where part of the World Cup will be held.

Two winters ago, when England did not want him in the West Indies, DeFreitas went to South Africa to play for Boland. He had such a good season, opening the bowling and batting at No 6, that Boland's coach called him "the most misunderstood cricketer in England". The coach was Bob Woolmer. He, for one, will be happier to see his boys face Richard Johnson than Phil DeFreitas.

In Pakistan, the problem will be even greater. Thanks to Mike Gatting's diplomacy, the only current player who has represented England there is Neil Fairbrother, who squeezed into the 1987 World Cup squad. When they gather there in February, most of the world's leading bowlers will know what to expect. But not ours.

At the very least, DeFreitas should have joined Fairbrother and the others on standby for the one-day internationals in South Africa. But, happily, the World Cup squad has yet to be named, and the selectors thus have the chance to admit their mistake. The way Illy is going, this will soon be something he finds easy.