Chairman of selectors David Graveney promised some surprises before the announcement of this winter's one day squads.

There were a couple, I suppose, but none too-earth-shattering. Steve Harmison had already pulled out of Zimbabwe and it was obvious that Andrew Flintoff was not going to make that wretched and ill-fated leg of the winter.

For me the two biggest surprises were those of Simon Jones and Matthew Prior for the Zimbabwe tour. I have mentioned before in these pages about Jones' one day record - it barely exists, but what there is of it is not particularly impressive.

He has played a total of ten one day games in his career, with four wickets for 423 runs at an average of 105.75 and an economy rate of 5.70. Still, he can bowl fast and one-day cricket, especially at international level, has changed markedly over the last few years.

Gone are those days when containment was the foremost thought in a fielding side's mind. Now wickets through hostility rather than slow strangulation hold the key- to be fair taking wickets has always been the best way to keep the scoring rate down. And so Jones could be used to bowl aggressively in the middle of the innings - it would have to be then because he is still not even comfortable opening the bowling with a red ball, let alone a white one, which is considered much harder to control.

Prior has been selected as an opening batsman instead of the rested, but willing to travel, Marcus Trescothick. That needs to be emphasised for all those disgruntled supporters in Nottinghamshire who might have thought that Prior had been selected ahead of their own Chris Read, already shabbily treated by the selectors this summer, even though it was thought that Prior was within a whisker of being selected ahead of Read for the South African Test tour.

It is an interesting selection. Fielding will not be a problem because he has done a lot of it while sharing the gloves at Sussex with Tim Ambrose. And he has had a good year opening in one day games down at Hove, averaging 40 in the totesport League. We should probably ignore the fact that his overall one day average is only 19 - that may have involved much batting down the order.

Whenever I have seen him bat he has impressed with his strong, punchy strokeplay.

The selections of Ian Bell and Kevin Pietersen are unsurprising, even though everyone knows that I have reservations about foreigners coming to England to play for our team. It was different when the likes of Robin Smith, Allan Lamb and Graeme Hick did so - they could not play for their own countries then - but then I suppose that it is no different from the likes of Alan Mullally, Craig White, Martin McCague and even Geraint Jones who came here with Australian accents.

Pietersen is a good player, have no doubt, and will have a much more gentle introduction to international cricket than Hick who was hailed as the great white hope and then plunged in against the rampaging West Indians.

A word of praise for Ashley Giles - he has done the right thing in not accepting the chance of a rest. He has done well this summer and so why should he give someone else a chance?

Darren Gough might consider himself a little fortunate to be going, although just recently he seems to have been very bullish when even the slightest criticism has come his way.

The selectors have said that they did not even give his demotion a second thought. Many more performances like last Saturday in the final of the ICC Champions Trophy and they might though. He bowled very poorly that day.

England will still be in a state of disbelief as to how they managed to lose that game against the West Indies at the Oval. It really was an incredible escape for Brian Lara's men, but there should be no disgrace for England; what they have done is prove to us that they are improving as a one day side and for the good that it will do Caribbean cricket it might just be worth one loss.

Lastly it was good to be at the Chairman's Ball at Sophia Gardens last Saturday - a very different 'do' to end the season, but nonetheless an enjoyable one - a bit of a late one too for me and wife, Jane.

I had to report on a rugby match on Sunday and will admit that I was not at my best!

However, I was pleased that Glamorgan have brought in a new type of cap - the tasselled sort normally associated with rugby presentations - for those capped by the club as a reminder of a most momentous occasion in a professional cricketer's life. The only problem was that the date on mine read - September 14 1992.

That is correct but an awful long time ago.