Arthur lashes England over
SOUTH AFRICA coach Mickey Arthur has opened the floodgates for a war of words with England after hitting out at their “criminal” treatment of spinner Adil Rashid.
The Yorkshire leg-spinner bowled just one over in England’s crushing 84-run Pro20 defeat in Pretoria onSunday, going for 25 runs before stand-in captain Alastair Cook turned to part-timers Joe Denly and Kevin Pietersen to fill the quota of overs.
But Arthur clearly took offence and hit out at Cook’s decision, insisting England showed a lack of faith in the 21-year-old. “They’ve put a lot of effort into Adil Rashid but for him to bowl one over today I thought was criminal and it showed that he doesn’t have too much backing, and that was interesting,” he said.
“When you see Adil bowl one over and then they use Denly and KP to bowl one and two respectively then you’ve got to question the backing for Adil within the team and that surprised us hugely. Maybe I’m getting in their minds a little bit, but I have to ask is Adil going to be used in the one-day series because if he only bowled one over today I wonder how much faith they’ve got in him. We’ll see that down the line.”
Rashid, however, is expected to be handed another chance to impress today when England take on South Africa A in a 50-over tour match.
It may only be a fortnight into the tour, but coach Andy Flower already has several injury concerns with pace bowler James Anderson the latest victim with a knee injury.
Anderson sits out today’s encounter in Potchefstroom, joining fellow seamer Stuart Broad (shoulder), all-rounder Paul Collingwood (back) and spinner Graeme Swann (intercostal muscle) on the sidelines.
Flower confirmed: “We’ve had it quite a lot, being such an early part of a tour. We reckon they aren’t going to be medium-term injuries. We’re hopeful they’ll clear up by Friday.”