As Nasser Hussain was at pains to point out all winter, nobody - not Graham Thorpe, not Andrew Caddick, not even Darren Gough - has the divine right to an England cap. England players, said Hussain, have to prove their hunger day in, day out, and today, three of the hungriestcricketers in the land were rewarded with recalls to the Test side.

Alec Stewart, Dominic Cork and John Crawley are three very different characters united by a burning desire to prove their doubters wrong. Each knew what they had to do to get noticed - for all that it is unloved and unwatched, the County Championship remains the premier form guide for English cricket, and the only shop window - and each has proved that there is no substitute for hard graft and honest toil when England selection is at stake.

We have seen all this before, of course. Last summer, Ian Ward was the token county representative, before him Ed Giddins. It is the selectors' annual catch-22 - they cannot simply ignore the claims of the best county performers, but at the same time they know full well that many of them will not be up to the mark.

But these selections are different. Of course, Stewart's record speaks for itself, but in all three cases, their rocket-fuelled starts to the season are more than just cheap runs and wickets against substandard opponents. Crawley, after an acrimonious divorce from Lancashire, is taking every delivery he receives very personally indeed, while Stewart wishes to prove that age shall not weary him. And Cork, who has turned in three virtuoso performances in a row, is the proud captain of a much-lampooned Derbyshire side that has defied all the odds to top Division Two of the Championship. If cricket is a team game played by individuals, then each man's personal crusade can only strengthen the resolve of the whole.

Nevertheless, the selections will raise a number of eyebrows. After a half-cocked performance against Australia last summer, Cork was widely believed to be washed up as an international cricketer, and at 30, with seven years of Test cricket behind him, he is hardly the face of the future either.

But Cork is a fighter, with a proven track record at Lord's. It seems a lifetime ago now, but England have not forgotten his series-turning contribution against West Indies in 2000, nor indeed his 7 for 43 on debut in 1995. Occasional days like these, and a lifetime of 2 for 70s in 23 overs can pass muster. But his recall is still a gamble. Whether his rediscovered swing can survive beyond early-season English conditions, and into the harsh realities of a winter in Australia, remains to be seen.

After missing three consecutive tours of the subcontinent, Crawley - a fine player of spin - might have assumed his chance had gone. But the continued fragility of Mark Ramprakash, and the selectors' reservations about the 20-year-old Ian Bell, have given him a belated opening. Muttiah Muralitharan, however, is out of the equation, and the early-season wickets are unlikely to aid the spinners. Instead, Crawley's principal foe will be Chaminda Vaas, whose ability to bend the ball back into the right-hander will test his knowledge of his off stump as surely as Glenn McGrath did in 1998-99.

There will have been less debate about Alec Stewart, and the selectors may even be breathing a private sigh of relief as a difficult decision has been taken out of their hands. It has not been an easy winter in the wicketkeeping department. James Foster retained the confidence of the selectors when he was awarded a central contract, but it was hardly ideal to have the old stager and the young pretender in direct competition for one place.

The situation that can now arise will benefit all parties. Foster, the heir apparent with six Test caps under his belt, can watch and learn - both from Stewart and from Andy Flower at Essex - and step into the breach where necessary. Stewart, refreshed from a winter's break and rejuvenated by a new set of elbows, can see England through the summer, before taking one last stab at the Ashes, and one last stab at the World Cup. Stewart may be pushing 40, but he is fit as a fiddle and, as he has already demonstrated this summer, his hunger remains undiminished.

Andrew Miller is editorial assistant of Wisden.com

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