Strauss to play for Somerset v India in bid for form

[Sachinism]

LONDON (Reuters) - Out-of-form England captain Andrew Strauss will turn out for English county side Somerset against India next month even though he is a Middlesex player. His appearance before the first test against the Indians from July 21-24 follows a string of low scores in the test series against Sri Lanka. Middlesex also do not play a four-day game for three weeks before the Lord's encounter. "We were very sensitive to Somerset's feelings on this and if at any stage we felt they weren't comfortable with the idea then it would have been a non-starter but they were very keen on the idea," Strauss said in a statement ahead of the July 15-17 tour match. "It helps my preparation for the test series and hopefully it will help Somerset. Any time I get the opportunity to play against the touring side prior to the series starting I take because it gives me an opportunity to see their bowlers." (Reporting by Mark Meadows; editing by John Mehaffey) http://cricket.yahoo.com/cricket/news/article?id=item/2.0/-/story/cricket.reuters.com/strauss-play-somerset-v-india-bid-form-20110620/ WTF is that even allowed. England are champions at rule-bending

[jairamesh]

play against the touring side prior to the series starting I take because it gives me an opportunity to see their bowlers."

He saw plenty of the Lankan bowlers for playing Middlesex. So goodluck with this, it's just going to back fire. And I don't think Zaheer will even play in this warm-up. It will be more of an audition for the support cast roles.

[Texan]

wow, that is called commitment. No Indian player would have done that. These days they live by the saying - No money, no match

[Karan114]

He saw plenty of the Lankan bowlers for playing Middlesex. So goodluck with this, it's just going to back fire. And I don't think Zaheer will even play in this warm-up. It will be more of an audition for the support cast roles.

Exactly...which pretty much beats the purpose of the rule changing to try and get Strauss some game time against Zak before the Tests :haha: