Cricket: Trio set for Glamorgan debuts

Apr 23 2008 icWales

AUSTRALIA seamer Jason Gillespie, former Yorkshire opener Matthew Wood and England all-rounder Jamie Dalrymple all make their LV County Championship Division Two debuts for Glamorgan against Middlesex at Lord’s.

Dalrymple will be keen to impress against his former county while Gillespie features after playing for Yorkshire during 2007.

Former England spinner Robert Croft is included and Gillespie’s selection, at the expense of Huw Waters, is set to be the only change in the 12-man squad who travelled to Oxford for last week’s drawn first-class opener at the Parks.

Young seamer James Harris has an ankle problem and is not fit. Harris has had a scan and could play in next week’s County Championship clash with Gloucestershire in Bristol.

Glamorgan cricket manager Matthew Maynard said: “The match at Lord’s is a big game for us because we know one win can make such a difference.

“Historically, Lord’s has always been a difficult venue for us to go and play, but we are a side who wants to change history and what better place to do it than at Lord’s.

“We all know that if you have a good start to the season it can determine how that season goes, and the emphasis of our pre-season work has been to build up to this contest at Lord’s so that we hit the ground running.

“Of course, beating Middlesex would be very, very nice, but we should not forget that in 1997 when we won the County Championship, we did not target winning our first three games.

“Instead, our emphasis, like this year, was to be competitive in all departments, and we ended up getting two good winning draws and a victory which set us up for the rest of the 1997 season.”

Glamorgan announced at the weekend the capture of South Africa batsman Herschelle Gibbs for the Twenty20 campaign in June.