England are to review their warm-up strategy on practice and match days after Joe Denly became the third player in five weeks to pick up an injury while playing football.
Denly twisted his left knee during the kickabout with team-mates on the Brit Oval outfield and will miss the first match of the NatWest Series against Australia today as a result.
Swelling around the joint rendered a scan inconclusive, and the Kent batsman is to see a specialist this morning amid concerns he has suffered ligament damage.
Denly was carried from the outfield to the dressing room for treatment after a challenge by Owais Shah that Andrew Strauss, the captain, described as “clumsy”. A frustrated Strauss suggested that the “no tackling” rule that applies to football — a staple of England’s warm-up routines — had fallen by the wayside.
But it came as an untimely embarrassment less than 48 hours after the abandonment of the second Twenty20 international at Old Trafford because a small area of the ground was deemed to be unsafe.
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England brought yesterday’s problem on themselves, after Ian Bell’s ankle injury during an indoor game in the build-up to the Edgbaston Test in late July and Matt Prior’s back spasm on the morning of the next game at Headingley Carnegie.
Michael Vaughan, a centrally contracted player, hurt his knee while playing football before a Yorkshire game in May, while James Anderson twisted his ankle warming down after a day of the Test against New Zealand in Wellington last year.
Strauss said: “Up until now we have not had a football-related injury which has actually caused a player to miss a game of cricket, but it looks like it will this time. We probably warm up 200 times a year, players enjoy it and it gets things going in the morning.
“Owais probably will feel bad. It was a bit of a clumsy challenge really, which is not ideal. When we play football we have a no tackling rule and I am not sure it has been heeded this time. You would like to think the players would be sensible enough in the warm-up not to take it too far — I think they did this time and so we are definitely going to have to look at it.
“A bit of competition gets you going when you can be stiff and tired. We are all competitive human beings, that is probably why we have got to this level, but it is also slightly dangerous because things can go a bit far.”
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Denly scored 67 on his England debut against Ireland in Belfast eight days ago and his injury means that Strauss is likely to continue the one-day opening partnership with Ravi Bopara that worked well against West Indies. The selectors last night resisted the temptation to add another batsman — probably Jonathan Trott — to the squad, but will be concerned over Denly with the Champions Trophy in South Africa less than three weeks away.
Ironically, Denly had described in an interview for the match programme of the Twenty20 games how football and cricket were interlinked in his teens. He said: “I got into football through cricket. One of our age-group cricket coaches at Kent, Graham Harrison, saw me play five-a-side soccer in a warm-up before cricket and obviously spotted something because he invited me along for a trial at Charlton Athletic.
“I was a decent footballer, but I didn’t really start growing until well after my seventeenth birthday and I used to get shoved around a bit on the field. I got pushed off the ball one day when playing for Whitstable Under-18s and broke my arm, so I decided enough was enough on that front and since then have concentrated on my cricket.”
Michael Clarke, who is leading Australia until Ricky Ponting returns midway through the series, said that cricket rather than fun was the priority in their warm-up routines so close to international matches. His squad still indulged yesterday afternoon in a game that involved throwing a projectile into goals during which a number of players lost balance and fell.
Clarke is annoyed that indoor net facilities at the ground are being used for corporate hospitality, as they were for the recent Test match. However, his attribution of personal scores of three and nought in the Ashes decider to lack of indoor practice does not stack up with his being run out in the second innings.
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The game today is a sell-out, but the forecast is for showers. The starting time of 1pm has been drawn up to accommodate an 8.45 finish; the floodlights must be switched off at 9.45 because of local authority regulations. That allows little leeway if extra time is needed to make up for any rain delays.
England (from): A J Strauss (captain), J M Anderson, R S Bopara, T T Bresnan, S C J Broad, P D Collingwood, E J G Morgan, M J Prior, A U Rashid, O A Shah, R J Sidebottom, G P Swann, L J Wright.
Australia (from): R T Ponting (captain), N W Bracken, M J Clarke, C J Ferguson, N M Hauritz, B W Hilfenhaus, J R Hopes, M E K Hussey, M G Johnson, B Lee, G A Manou, T D Paine, P M Siddle, A C Voges, S R Watson, C L White.
Umpires: N J Llong and A L Hill (New Zealand). Third umpire: P J Hartley.
Television: Live on Sky Sports 1, from 12.30.
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The most unlikely things can happen...
?Glenn McGrath twisted an ankle and was ruled out of the Edgbaston Ashes Test in 2005 after treading on a stray cricket ball while warming up
?Nasser Hussain slipped on a wet tennis court and broke his wrist on his first England tour in 1990
?Ted Dexter was run over by his car in 1965. It was out of petrol and the England batsman was pushing it to a garage when the car rolled back, breaking Dexter’s right leg
?Jimmy Adams passed out after slicing through tendons in his hand as he made a sandwich on a flight during the West Indies tour to South Africa in 1998
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?Last month, Andr? Nel, the Surrey and South Africa bowler, ruptured elbow ligaments after failing to walk through a door accurately
Words by Patrick Kidd