Atherton or I will pay price for Ashes failure, admits Taylor

JOHN EMBUREY will lead a side including five other Test cricketers in the opening match of the Ashes tour on Thursday, but it will still be a very gentle start for the Australians against the Duke of Norfolk's XI at Arundel.

The attack at Emburey's disposal is experienced but creaky with age and Australia's own varied bowling resources will be seriously tested only, perhaps, by the Flower brothers from Zimbabwe.

John Barclay, England's manager in Zimbabwe last winter, took due note of the way in which the touring team were deliberately confronted by the strongest possible opposition as soon as they arrived.

In selecting the Duke's side in his capacity as Arundel's director of cricket, however, he was constrained by the fact that 16 of the first-class counties have championship fixtures and the other two, Northamptonshire and Worcestershire, matches against the universities.

Barclay has done his best with players from those two counties and an assortment of visiting cricketers from overseas, including three who played against England in Zimbabwe. Andy and Grant Flower are joined by Andy Whittal, the off-spinning former captain of Cambridge, but hopes of giving the Australians a sterner test were thwarted when Shane Lee, who hit five championship hundreds for Somerset last year, had to pull out last week because of an ankle injury. He is playing Lancashire League cricket for Enfield.

The Friends of Arundel Cricket Club are expecting a crowd of 10,000, two-thirds of the attendance for the Australians' first match four years ago, when the game was played on a Sunday.

DUKE OF NORFOLK'S XI (v Australians, Arundel, May 15): *J E Emburey, J W Hall, G W Flower, T S Curtis, D M Ward, -A Flower, D J Capel, T C Walton, A R Whittall, N V Radford, N A Foster.