RAY ILLINGWORTH yesterday called for a county system which would prepare young English cricketers to be playing Test matches regularly by the time they were in their early twenties. The chairman of the England cricket selectors was announcing virtually an unchanged squad for the second Test against India which begins at Lord's on Thursday, and which has an average age in the mid twenties and just two players over 30.

"The average age of our side now is beginning to approach what it should be," said Illingworth. "But my hope for the future is that even younger players, such as Alex Tudor of Surrey and Middlesex's Richard Johnson, come through. The trouble is that they - not Johnson who is injured but others - only seem to get the odd game and nothing more. They should be playing Tests at 22 or 23 but they have to get through at county level."

The England side that won at Edgbaston did so not least because they produced some of the most exhilarating fielding ever seen by an England team. It is, by nature, becoming a younger man's game.

Illingworth has, not unsurprisingly, announced a squad that with the exception of John Crawley, who is injured, is the same as that for the first Test. Crawley is not being replaced but the squad, reduced to 12, will be supplemented at practice tomorrow by Alec Stewart, who will be on standby in case Nick Knight's cracked finger fails a fitness Test.