Pedro to miss clash with the Dynamos

Published 15 July 2008

West Indian paceman, Pedro Collins will miss the LV County Championship match with Durham beginning tomorrow at Guildford CC with a side strain injury.

The 31 year old, who has played in 32 Test Matches for the West Indies, suffered the injury while bowling in Surrey’s drawn match against Division One leaders, Nottinghamshire. Despite missing this clash, Surrey medical staff are hopeful that he could recover in time for Sunday’s NatWest Pro40 match with Yorkshire.

Chris Schofield, James Ormond and off-spinner, Murtaza Hussain have been drafted into the squad of 13 as additional options for Surrey Cricket Manager, Alan Butcher.

Schofield has recently declared his fitness after suffering from a minor groin strain that has sidelined him for the last week and Ormond will also be ready and raring for action, having been left out of Surrey’s last two Championship matches.

Hussain played his first match for the Surrey first team last year when he was called in against Warwickshire after the departure of Harbhajan Singh and in three matches for the County, he has taken 11 wickets at the respectable average of 30.36.

The Brown Caps have the wood on their opponents, Durham. The two Clubs have met 13 times in first-class cricket, with the Brown Caps winning ten of these encounters to Durham’s one. However, Mark Ramprakash’s men will have to counteract the dangerous Shivnarine Chanderpaul who has joined the Dynamos after the conclusion of the Australia and West Indies one-day series.

The Surrey squad is; Scott Newman, Stewart Walters, Mark Ramprakash (captain), Jonathan Batty (wicket-keeper), Usman Afzaal, Matthew Spriegel, Chris Jordan, Matt Nicholson, Saqlain Mushtaq, Jade Dernbach, James Ormond, Murtaza Hussain, Chris Schofield.

As always ball-by-ball commentary is available www.surreycricket.com,courtesy of BBC London.

Highlights of each day’s play will be available within two hours after the close on Surrey TV.

In injury news, James Benning is making excellent progress on a lower back injury he sustained during the Twenty20 period. It is hoped that he will be fit and available for Sunday’s NatWest Pro40 match against Yorkshire. Meanwhile, captain Mark Butcher is still recovering from his knee operation and his mid way through a rehabilitation programme. It is hoped that he will be back in the nets in the next couple of weeks, however this will be heavily dependent on how his knee responds to the increasing workloads.

Tomorrow’s match will kick-off Surrey Cricket’s Guildford Festival, in association with J.M Finn & Co. It will conclude with the NatWest Pro40 match on Sunday between Surrey and Yorkshire. The Club has a staging agreement with Guildford CC that allows them to host festival cricket until at least 2012. This entitles them to host one limited overs and one four-day County Championship match per year during that time.

The first festival match at Guildford was way back in 1938.

JM Finn & Co, a London based Stockbroking firm, were recently announced by Surrey CCC as proud sponsors of the Guildford Festival.