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Youth, youth, youth. That's the message everywhere. Remember it, regain it, select it, stick with it. 'Invest in Yoof,' is the deafening clamour, one that Nasser Hussain, David Graveney and Duncan Fletcher will try their best to heed as they sit down to select the side for the Oval Test. Fletcher, though, admitted on radio yesterday that he ``didn't know many of the players very well''. It's time to give him a helping hand.

So who are these batting prodigies who have stated an indisputable claim to be picked for England? Some current and some former Essex players discussed the issue at Hussain's benefit match at Billericay this week. Here's an assessment of the names we came up with.

Opening batsmen:

Darren Maddy: an industrious worker on his technique and fitness. Consistent, but has recently been in the middle order for Leicestershire. He is 13th in the first-class averages, but a career average of 32 raises doubts about his pedigree.

Michael Vaughan: stylish, upright, competent despite slightly stuttery footwork. Career average 35 but this season 28, which accounts for him sometimes dropping down Yorkshire's order. Looked out of depth on the England A tour to India, but he is a confident character and that was three years ago.

Mal Loye: sublime, wristy back-foot strokemaker. Young player of the year in 1998, but he seems to have regressed and had a spell in the Northamptonshire second team. Bags of potential, though.

David Sales: belligerent, attacking, in the Colin Milburn mould both in style and shape. Enjoying a tremendous season for Northants (average 57) but looks vulnerable to good, probing bowling outside off stump and has a career average below 30.

Other batsmen:

Aftab Habib: nominated as the ideal No 6 for England in Graveney's straw poll of county players, but technique looked flawed in his two Tests. Excellent career average (46) but he's going on 28.

Andrew Flintoff: powerful, dominant, if a bit one-paced. Reports this season of him producing some very fast spells with the ball. Doesn't appear particularly 'cricket wise' and when I suggested that to a Lancashire colleague, he replied: 'Well, he's only 21.' Sachin Tendulkar had seven Test centuries at that age.

Ben Smith: been around for 10 years but still only 27 and playing the best cricket of his life. Compact, nimble and particularly good on faster wickets (he made 204 at the Oval last year). Looks to have the ability to raise his game to a higher level.

Anthony McGrath: good all-round ball player who looked the business a couple of years ago, then fell away with second-season syndrome. A poorish overall record, but one to watch.

Gavin Hamilton: neat, strong and assured, his resourceful, left-handed style resembles a young Graham Thorpe. Averaging 67, with a spate of not outs, but has been going in No 6 or 7, so perhaps hasn't been severely tested enough.

None of these have made a cast iron case for inclusion. Someone must be worth the risk, but you can see the selectors' predicament. They will also be asking themselves another question: How demanding is the bowling in county cricket compared to, say, 10 years ago?

This year the four or five English pacemen of international class are augmented by only three overseas Test fast bowlers - Nixon McClean, Michael Kasprowicz and Allan Donald (who has hardly played). In 1989, the overseas pacemen were: Donald, Marshall, Wasim, W Benjamin, F Stephenson, Walsh, Bishop, W Davis, Ambrose, Holding, S Jefferies, Cairns. In the mid-Eighties there were even more. Is it any wonder that today's younger brigade look a bit sketchy when they are thrust into the Test spotlight?

And there's another point. The counties aren't always playing ball with this youth thing. Simon Base, the 39-year-old seamer who last played for Derbyshire in 1996, was recruited from club cricket to play a match for them this year. What sort of message does that send out? Surely they could have pitched in some young bowler for a bit of experience.

The signings of Kim Barnett (39) by Gloucestershire and Richard Harden (34) by Yorkshire - with all their young talent - seem just as myopic.

Ultimately, there is only one way to banish old-ism from county cricket and encourage 'yoof'. The next chief executive of the ECB should be Janet Street-Porter.