England call up Clarke

Published September 8, 2002

LONDON, Sept 7: England Friday called up Surrey youngster Rikki Clarke as one of three changes to the squad for next week’s ICC Champions Trophy in Sri Lanka.

All-rounder Clarke, 20, is joined in the 14-man party by Middlesex batsman Owais Shah and Dominic Cork.

The trio come in for injury victims Paul Collingwood (neck), Craig White (abdominal injury) and Michael Vaughan (impending knee operation).

It brings the number of changes to the original squad to five.

Since the initial announcement of the party last month, England have replaced Darren Gough with James Kirtley and Andrew Flintoff with Ian Blackwell.

Clarke’s rapid rise represents the most intriguing choice of replacements.

He only made his first-class debut for Surrey this season on the back of a successful winter in South Africa.

Squad: Nasser Hussain (Essex, captain), Andrew Caddick (Somerset), Ian Blackwell (Somerset), Rikki Clarke (Surrey), Dominic Cork (Derbyshire), Ashley Giles (Warwickshire), Matthew Hoggard (Yorkshire), Ronnie Irani (Essex), James Kirtley (Sussex), Nick Knight (Warwickshire), Owais Shah (Middlesex), Jeremy Snape (Gloucestershire), Alec Stewart (Surrey) and Marcus Trescothick (Somerset).—AFP

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