AS THEY did against Australia last summer, the England selectors have responded to a disappointment at Lord’s by naming an unchanged team for Edgbaston. Stephen Harmison’s return has been postponed until the third Test at Trent Bridge, the second of the back-to-back matches that start with the Birmingham Test on Thursday.

That he declined to bowl in damp, cool weather at Trent Bridge on Saturday suggested that Harmison already knew — and was content with — the decision to give him more time to work towards full match fitness after recovering from the shin soreness that kept him out of the Bombay Test in March. He will play for Durham against Sussex in the Liverpool Victoria County Championship match starting at the Riverside tomorrow.

Harmison’s omission gave the selectors another opportunity to demonstrate that they have not yet lost faith in Jon Lewis, the Gloucestershire fast-medium bowler who might have abandoned hope after being left out at Lord’s despite having taken nine for 90 against Sri Lanka for England A in Worcester. Named in England’s development squad last Friday, Lewis has retained his place in a 12-man squad but Ian Bell, also omitted at Lord’s, has been left out.

Sri Lanka are bound to change the pace of their attack now that Lasith Malinga has confirmed, by his performance at Hove on Saturday, that they were unwise to do without his extra pace and variety in the first Test.

Conditions later this week will determine whether England shift their own balance by fielding two swing and two hit-the-deck bowlers, as opposed to three of the latter in Andrew Flintoff, Liam Plunkett and Sajid Mahmood.

Plunkett is certain to win a fourth cap because he is the only one of the five specialist bowlers with serious batting pretensions, but the length of England’s tail remains a concern despite their 551 for five declared at Lord’s. One man who could solve the problem is Rikki Clarke, but only if his bowling accuracy improves. At least until Ashley Giles returns, the lack of another all-rounder is a weakness and county cricket continues to be scoured by the selectors for alternatives.

Five is claiming an encouraging start to its highlights coverage: an average of 592,000 viewers for the five days of the first Test. The 45-minute show reached an audience of more than four million in total, an increase on the corresponding fixture against Sri Lanka in 2002, which averaged 524,000.

Nearly half of Five’s audience (49 per cent) was made up of ABC1 adults, bringing what a spokesman called “an excellent profile” to advertisers on the channel. A peak of nearly 800,000 saw Friday’s programme, when England reduced Sri Lanka to 91 for six. As usual, Sky has released no viewing figures for the first Test, nor for any take-up of subscriptions after its massive advertising campaign fronted by Flintoff. New subscribers, it says, cannot necessarily be ascribed to cricket.

There is no mystery about the identity of the sponsor of the new domestic Pro40 competition. It is the familiar and loyal ECB ally, NatWest Bank, sponsor of a variety of cricket events and competitions in England for 25 years. The new tournament will be known as NatWest Pro40.

Yesterday the ECB announced a new four-year deal with NatWest worth nearly £10 million. It includes sponsorship of the Pro40, the NatWest Series one-day internationals and the international Twenty20 fixtures, plus the women’s one-day international and Twenty20 fixtures. NatWest also underwrites a number of grassroots cricket initiatives.

The new version of the “Sunday” league, back to its popular original format of 40 overs a side, starts on July 18. Although the two-division structure remains, there are now only two automatic promotion and relegation places. The third promotion will be decided by a play-off.

ENGLAND XII

A Flintoff (Lancashire, captain), M E Trescothick (Somerset), A J Strauss (Middlesex), A N Cook (Essex), K P Pietersen (Hampshire), P D Collingwood (Durham), G O Jones (Kent), M S Panesar (Northamptonshire), L E Plunkett (Durham), M J Hoggard (Yorkshire), S Mahmood (Lancashire), J Lewis (Gloucestershire).