Savident and Frith selected

DAVE HEARSE has named Lee Savident and Jeremy Frith in his squad for the European Cricket Council Division Two Championship. Earlier this week, both players were deemed ineligible to represent the island at the tournament in Scotland in August but the Guernsey Cricket Board are appealing against those decisions.

'I have named the 14 that I would like to take to Scotland,' said Hearse.

'Obviously, we are waiting on those appeals and if both go against us, or if we have any injuries before August, we may have to look outside the squad to bring players in.

The island manager has been in consultation with GCB chairman Dave Piesing about the possible outcome of the appeals and is particularly hopeful of having Savident available.

'Dave is more confident with Lee because he has represented Guernsey at under-19 as well as senior level before and he left the island to pursue a cricket career, which he couldn't do here,' Hearse said.

'But even without Lee and Jeremy, I think the players we have got are good enough to do a very good job in Scotland.

'Yes, we are a better team with them, but we still have a very good team without them.'

The squad has a mixture of youth and experience, with Cobo teenagers Jamie Nussbaumer and Kris Moherndl making the trip alongside seasoned island regulars such as their clubmates, Stuart Le Prevost and Gary Rich.

Mark Jefferies is the one member of the party who was not involved in winter training.

He impressed when opening the batting against Bermuda after being called in as a late replacement and provides Hearse and captain Andy Biggins with different options in what will be a testing week.

'We are going there to win it and we are going to pick teams on what we think is going to be the strongest XI on the day,' said Hearse.

'We have all the bases covered. We have a lot of bowlers in the squad and we can vary the batting line-up and the order depending on whether we bat first or second, what totals we are chasing and who is tired at a given time.

'The squad has been selected based on commitment, attitude, availability and form.'

Squad training will continue to be on Wednesday evenings with Birkenshaw over next week for individual sessions and he will return later in July in the build-up to the tournament.

Meanwhile, Hearse has added Justin Meades to his main island squad.

The Australian is ineligible to represent Guernsey in ICC competition, but is likely to feature in other representative fixtures including the inter-insular.

'He has been added based on his performances. He has demonstrated before what a dangerous batsman he is, but he has developed into someone who can make big scores,' the island manager said.