YORKSHIRE captain Anthony McGrath was 'stunned and delighted' when he received that breakfast time telephone call from England's chairman of selectors, David Graveney, telling him he had been called up by England.

'Surprise' is probably the word to sum up Matthew Hoggard's feelings when he saw his name included because Championship figures at the time of 2-190 hardly made him an automatic choice.

If McGrath was delighted and Hoggard surprised by their fate, then Ryan Sidebottom had cause to feel a little disappointed that he had not been able to answer his mobile and find Graveney on the other end.

For with England close to despair at the lengthening casualty list of their fast bowlers they could have done worse than give a second Test outing to Sidebottom, who has been far and away Yorkshire's best bowler this season in both Championship and one-day cricket.

In four Championship games up to and including the match at Northampton, Sidebottom had bagged a total of 16 wickets at the very respectable average of 17.06 runs apiece.

Only six bowlers in the country could top that figure at a similar stage and of those Somerset's Nixon McLean is West Indian and Nottingham-shire's Steve Elworthy is South African.

Sidebottom has been head and shoulders above his fellow Yorkshire bowlers to such an extent that at the start of this week his nearest rival was Chris Silverwood with eight dismissals, each costing 27 runs.

The Huddersfield-born left-armer's haul of seven for 97 against Derbyshire was his best in first-class cricket but Sidebottom was also to the fore against Leicestershire Foxes in the National League on Sunday when he grabbed 5-42 with his best effort in coloured clothing games since collecting 6-40 off Glamorg-an's attack at Cardiff in 1998.

Although Sidebottom earned the tag of Yorkshire's leading wicket-taker last summer with 41 dismissals he was not at his best but at least he kept going, despite a nagging groin strain towards the end of the season, and shouldered a lot of the hard work.

Now he is finding movement through the air and off the seam and banging the ball in really hard.

The only worry is that with other bowlers continuing to go down like ninepins around him he may be given too heavy a workload and succumbs to injury himself.

At 25, Sidebottom has not yet quite reached his prime as a fast bowler and it is to be hoped that England do not forget about him and allow him to become a one-Test wonder like his dad, Arnie.

His only Test appearance to date was on England's 100th visit to Lord's in 2001 when they took on Pakistan and Ryan became the country's tenth player to follow in his father's footsteps.

England should also remember that Ryan was their 'A' team's top bowler in the West Indies in 2000-2001 when he produced match figures of 8-65 against Jamaica at Kingston in the Busta Cup.

If England stop fussing about bowlers who are obviously not fit to be picked and call up those who are then Ryan might resume his international career sooner rather than later.

Updated: 10:26 Saturday, May 24, 2003