THE ENGLAND selectors have sent out a message of confidence to Mike Atherton's beaten side by announcing their squad for the fourth Test at Headingley almost two weeks ahead of schedule.

The match at Headingley does not start until July 24th but rather than let players stew for an extra week, the chairman of selectors David Graveney, has notified all of the side beaten by 268 runs at Old Trafford together with the Middlesex spinner Phil Tufnell, that they will constitute the 12 players from which the next side will be chosen.

But five other players - Devon Malcolm, the Hollioake brothers Adam and Ben, Ashley Cowan the young Essex pace bowler, and Gloucestershire's left- arm swing bowler Mike Smith - will be invited to attend a two-day squad get- together prior to the match before rejoining their counties for the next round of championship matches.

Effectively it means demotion for Malcolm and Smith, who had both been included in an official 14-man squad before the Old Trafford match, but with more than a fortnight until the game, the likely conditions not yet apparent, and the ever-present threat of injuries, no one is being ruled out absolutely.

All 17 players will be gathering at a Yorkshire hotel on the evening of Sunday July 20th for a series of motivational seminars and team-building exercises to be run by Insights, Will Carling's company, which was employed in a similar capacity before the season when a squad of players went to Heythrop Hall in Oxlordshire.

The timing of the gathering is unconnected with the defeat, although that of the squad announcement is more calculated and had been hinted at strongly by Atherton in his post-match press conference. "I spoke with my fellow selectors Graham Gooch and Mike Gatting during the last couple of days at Old Trafford," said Graveney yesterday, "and we were in agreement about the 12 we need at Headingley. I had a word with Mike Atherton and David Lloyd and then spoke to all the players before they left."

Despite the heavy defeat, the series is level at one match each, and in broad terms, an absolute demonstration of faith in players who are still on equal terms with Australia, is not unexpected. All too often in the past, wholesale changes have been made in such circumstances, with players restricted by the fear of being discarded too readily. Now the selectors are being seen to be standing by their judgement.

Whether the side could be improved is another matter. The batting was always going to stay the same once Butcher got runs at Lord's and again at Old Trafford, and Crawley finally got going in the second innings at Manchester. But drawing on confidence should not be allowed to give way to complacency: Atherton, for example, will be aware that his first innings scores of 2, 1 and 5 are unsatisfactory and nor for that matter are those of Crawley (1, 1, and 4) or Stewart (18, 1, 30).

In bowling terms, the omission of Malcolm from immediate thinking is no shock, given his appalling record on the ground. The Headingley pitch was re-laid a few years back, and no longer possesses the erratic nature that once produced such interesting contests. But the ground still possesses its own micro-climate and when the clouds roll over, the ball will still jag around. In such circumstances, bowlers who can control what they are doing are at a premium.

Both Neil Mallender and Steve Watkin have been successfully selected as horses for this particular course in the past and there was a case for doing so again with the likes of Watkin once more, or Angus Fraser who would let no one down. Of the bowlers left, the one at risk would seem to be Andrew Caddick, who has taken wickets in the series without somehow entirely convincing. Still, when the going gets tough, his motor all too readily coughs and splutters. He ought to be a major player in the side, and someone should get hold of him and ask him exactly how much he wants to be.

Graveney confirmed that the initiative to make further use of Insight had come before the defeat and was not merely a reaction to it. "We have got a bit of a break in the international season," he said, "and it was always our intention to have another session with the squad at this stage of the summer."