LONDON (Reuters)
Yorkshire fast bowler Darren Gough says he was prepared to stand down from the final two Ashes Tests against Australia this summer so that England could blood his replacement for the winter test tour to India. Gough, who told the England management well in advance that he did not wish to tour India, also said he was disappointed his decision ultimately cost him a place on the subsequent winter tour to New Zealand.

Gough, 30, told BBC's Radio Five Live that England's chairman of selectors David Graveney promised him he would not jeopardise his place in the squad for New Zealand by making himself unavailable for India.

"The chairman of selectors told me it was fine to stay at home this Christmas, but then he changed his mind and said, if I don't go to India, I can't go to New Zealand," Gough said.

"If they wanted to pick somebody else for the last two Tests (against Australia) to try them out, I was making that an option for them as well.

"I wanted to play and I want to play any time it's possible to play, but I didn't want to do what Graham Thorpe did a couple of years ago and wait until the last day before the tour and say I wasn't going.

"So if they had wanted that (to play someone else), I would have understood."

Gough and former England captain Alec Stewart were both overlooked for the two winter Test tours after ruling themselves out of the first of them, to India.

Chairman of selectors Graveney said when he named the tour squads at Lord's they had been "heart-wrenching decisions to leave them out".

England make their three-Test tour of India from November 18 to December 23. They return home for Christmas and then go back to India for the one-day internationals in January.

The squad then head for New Zealand where they will play three Tests as well as the one-day series on a tour starting in February.

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