England blame game: Inquest over shambles and nobody’s owning up

England's cricket selectors were called to an emergency meeting yesterday to explain the most controversial, shambolic choice of a national team in years.

The four-man panel, led by national selector Geoff Miller, were forced to defend their decision-making for last week's second npower Test at Headingley which led to the little known former roof tiler, Australian Darren Pattinson, being called up for a shock debut.

The meeting was hastily arranged by the managing director of the England team, former Glamorgan skipper Hugh Morris, in response to the 10-wicket capitulation to South Africa in Leeds.

Alarm bells were raised when captain Michael Vaughan said team unity had been fatally compromised by the astonishing inclusion of 29-year-old Nottinghamshire seamer Pattinson ahead of familiar faces such as Matthew Hoggard and Steve Harmison.

While Vaughan tried to distance himself from the issue, coach Peter Moores took his turn to push the spotlight elsewhere by emphasising how he had to rely on the other selectors - Miller, James Whitaker and Ashley Giles - for player assessments.

He said: 'You've got to take advice on where any bowler is at a given time. Is he bowling well? How's he going? What's he doing? That's what we've got Geoff for, that's what we've got James Whitaker for - people are out there telling you what's happening with a given bowler.

'You can look at their stats, but you can't always go and see them yourself because you are playing a Test match or whatever and the schedules don't allow you to do that.

'Darren was the pick because of how he'd been bowling in county cricket.'

Moores' comments followed his postmatch indications that the late decision to pick Pattinson ahead of Chris Tremlett was Vaughan's call.

'Vaughany knows conditions here well,' said the coach. 'He just felt we needed a bowler to give us a full length, because the pitch looked as if it was going to be slow.'

Vaughan, however, had said: 'It does look a confused selection, it did unsettle the team.'