Why?

I wish to know why only two of the regulars from the 2005 Ashes side - Andrew Strauss and Kevin Pietersen - are in the team for the first Test against West Indies next week.

It cannot be a coincidence that much the same misfortune overcame England in the 1989 Ashes series when none of Mike Gatting's Marvels from 1986-7 remained. Gatting won every crown available in Australia that year; and, forgive me if I have the facts wrong, but didn't England win back the Ashes in 2005?

I believe it tells you a lot about the mentality of the English selector who believes he must select; in other words juggle with the team to take notice of form, change of pitch and the previous results.

Remember Peter May. He made seven changes to the England side after Malcolm Marshall ran amok in Manchester in 1988 and said: "I couldn't change the whole team, could I?" Or Tom Graveney, who made hundreds in successive Tests, seven years apart! He was one of our greatest batsmen with 122 hundreds in his career but he could not command a regular England place.

Tell me it is part of the old social pattern - amateurs commanding professionals and wanting to keep them in their place - and you may find a sympathetic ear. That thinking still exists in the game and sometimes rears its ugly head in the rest of life.

I suspect that the men in the corridors of power are happier with an amateur type like Strauss - ex-public school, ex-university, nice accent, good manners - in charge than Gatting, Graham Gooch or Michael Vaughan, who scrambled to the top despite their lack of top class education.

If it is true it is a shame but, hey, when was a chairman of selectors last held to account for the team failures?