Caddick upbeat about recovery despite ECB's doubts

Andrew Caddick has requested to be allowed to join the England Academy tour to Malaysia and India at the end of January in a bid to prove his fitness for the main tour of the West Indies in March. Caddick is reported to be recovering well from an operation to remove a bone spur on his back after sustaining a stress fracture.

"I'm feeling good and am stepping up my schedule slowly," said Caddick. "But I don't want to make predictions. The tour is still a long way off. I'm on a gruelling regime and I will be fit. Anyone who knows me knows I mean it. I want to play at least for another year."

But Peter Gregory, the ECB's chief medical officer, sounded a note of caution which appeared to make Caddick's participation in the Academy tour unlikely. "Andrew is nowhere near being able to bowl again, " he said. "He will not be for perhaps another six weeks."

Gregory was more upbeat about the rehabilitation of England's other sidelined fast bowlers. "Simon Jones has done fantastically well. He is fitter than ever and will go on the Academy tour. Steve Harmison's recent progress has been very encouraging and he's nearly there. Low back injuries like his are hard to pin down but he should be fit if he is picked for the Caribbean."